Ditto, a company focused on providing “resilient” connectivity for edge devices, has raised $82 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its post-money valuation to $462 million—more than double its Series A valuation from 2023. In this context, “edge” refers to a distributed computing approach that brings data processing and storage closer to where it’s created (such as IoT sensors, 5G routers, or smartphones) rather than relying on centralized data centers and cloud platforms. This method reduces latency and optimizes bandwidth by processing data directly on the device or edge servers near the data’s source.
In the era of AI and resource-heavy machine learning models, speed is crucial, especially in scenarios requiring real-time decision-making or unreliable connectivity.
According to CEO and co-founder Adam Fish, Ditto skips the need for physical edge servers, a costly and labour-intensive solution that customers can avoid.
“Imagine your local fast food restaurant chain — if they’ve added in additional servers and built out Wi-Fi networks in all their locations, when something goes wrong, no one on-site is equipped to fix it,” Fish said.
Instead, Ditto uses the hardware companies’ workforce, such as smartphones, that are already employed.
“We replace hardware with software — a no-brainer choice,” Fish added.
Ditto’s platform includes a key “edge sync” component, an embeddable software development kit (SDK) that device manufacturers can incorporate into their applications. This enables companies to leverage the devices’ built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or local LAN capabilities to form “ad-hoc mesh networks,” allowing apps to discover and communicate with each other without relying on a centralized cloud server. Ditto acts as a mobile database, enabling apps to read from and write to it locally.
This approach has led Ditto to attract several major airlines as customers, including Delta, Japan Airlines, and Lufthansa.
“Airlines require constant crew collaboration, especially while in-air, but cabin connectivity is often unstable,” Fish said. “This means the apps [that] cabin crew use to stay in touch during takeoff, in-flight, and landing can often be disrupted, leading to poor communication among the team and, at times, a poor customer experience.”
Delta, for example, has built a mobile app for its flight attendants that integrates Ditto’s SDK and works on standard company-issued iPhones.
“Flight attendants can now chat with each other from anywhere in the cabin, making it easy to collaborate with team members consistently during the flight and provide the best customer experience,” Fish added.
With the new $82 million, Fish says Ditto plans to expand its team and scale its core product, including forming partnerships with cloud database vendors. This builds on its collaboration with MongoDB, which recently launched the MongoDB Connector to synchronize data between edge devices and MongoDB databases.
As AI increasingly impacts society, edge computing will become more critical for real-time data processing, low latency, and enhanced data privacy, as sensitive information can be processed locally instead of in the cloud.
“There are massive tailwinds to edge computing, especially with the rise of AI,” Fish said.
“Running models at the edge adds resiliency, improves privacy and lowers costs. Our vision with Ditto is that it becomes the de facto company and platform you turn to when thinking about the edge.”
Ditto’s Series B round was led by Top Tier Capital Partners and Acrew Capital, with participation from Advance Venture Partners, Amity Ventures, Friends & Family Capital, Fundrise, USIT, IIJ, and True Ventures.
