Fireworks AI, a startup co-founded by Ukrainians, raised $250M and reached a valuation of $4 billion

American startup Fireworks AI, which helps developers use powerful artificial intelligence chips and work with AI models, has raised $250 million in a new round of Series C funding. The company is valued at $4 billion, Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the co-founders of Fireworks AI are two Ukrainians, Dmytro Dzhulgakov and Dmytro Ivchenko.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic, with participation from Sequoia Capital. The funds raised were divided into two parts: $230 million in primary financing and $20 million in a secondary offering.

What they plan to invest in

• According to the company itself, the startup plans to use the funds raised to:

• intensify research in the field of model tuning and inference optimization;

• expand the product to a full chain platform for creating AI solutions (model lifecycle management);

• scaling the global computing infrastructure (increasing capacity by 3–4 times).

In addition, according to CEO and co-founder Lin Qiao, the money will be used to expand the team by more than 150 specialists (engineers, researchers, salespeople, and marketers), as well as to purchase GPU chips—the main drivers of modern AI systems.

About Fireworks AI 

The company does not manufacture its own semiconductors, but provides virtual access to AI chips, helping developers launch and optimize open artificial intelligence models.

Fireworks AI also helps customers adapt models to their needs — a process known as inference, i.e., applying already trained models in real products.

According to Crunchbase, the startup raised $25 million from Benchmark in a Series A investment round and $52 million from Sequoia Capital in a Series B round.

Read more: How a Ukrainian startup attracted 60k users and got into Sam Altman’s program. Interview with Lobby9