CacheWave, a startup company commercializing technology developed at Portland State University, has been awarded an $80,000 grant from PSU’s University Venture Development Fund (UVDF). The funding will accelerate the development of CacheWave’s innovative, energy-efficient platform for internet content delivery.
The University Venture Development Fund at PSU is a donor-supported fund designed to provide critical, early-stage capital to promising ventures emerging from the university community. By investing in startups like CacheWave, the UVDF aims to foster innovation, support the commercialization of groundbreaking research, and stimulate economic growth in Oregon, demonstrating careful stewardship of donor contributions to advance the region's technology landscape.
CacheWave is tackling the growing sustainability and scalability challenges of internet video streaming, while also enabling AI/ML workloads and metacompute offloading. As demand for high-resolution video streaming, cloud computing, and AI applications soars, the energy consumption and costs associated with traditional, centralized data centers is becoming unsustainable. CacheWave’s solution decentralizes content delivery by creating a network of low-cost, low-power cache nodes placed closer to users within ISP networks or even in subscribers' homes.
This new architecture is powered by a patent-pending, PSU-licensed algorithm called Multipath Reverse Segment Download (MPRD), which allows multiple nodes to deliver content to a user simultaneously. The result is a dramatic reduction in data center load, a significantly smaller carbon footprint, and a faster, more reliable streaming experience for consumers.
"We are deeply grateful to Portland State University’s UVDFund and the PSU Business Accelerator (PSBA) for providing the critical seed funding and resources that allowed CacheWave to take our research to the next stage. Their support enabled us to establish a realistic ISP test lab, integrate our low-cost, low-power micro-CDNs, and successfully demonstrate 8K video delivery. Beyond the grant, PSBA’s provision of office and lab space, along with invaluable mentorship, made this milestone possible" said Suresh Srinivasan, Co-Founder of CacheWave.
The UVDF grant will enable CacheWave to build out a lab-scale optical network testbed to validate its technology, engage with regional Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for pilot programs, and position the company for significant federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and private investment.
"The UVDF grant is critical for CacheWave's innovative edge caching technology, providing the essential early-stage capital to move from university research to a validated, real-world solution for sustainable and scalable internet content delivery," said Travis Woodland, Director of Innovation & Intellectual Property at PSU.
About CacheWave
CacheWave, Inc. is a Portland-based startup creating a sustainable and scalable solution for internet content delivery. By deploying an intelligent, decentralized network of low-power edge nodes, CacheWave aims to reduce the internet's energy consumption, lower costs for content providers, and deliver superior performance for video streaming, cloud services, and edge AI applications. Its core technology is exclusively licensed from Portland State University.
About Portland State University
As Oregon's only public urban research university, Portland State University (PSU) is a vital force for innovation and intellectual growth in the heart of Portland. PSU's research and academic programs are integrated with the city's vibrant business and cultural communities, providing students with unique opportunities for hands-on learning and driving economic development in the region.