Kove

What Kove does

Kove is a Chicago-based, privately held software company (legal entity Kove IO, Inc.) founded in 2003 (originally as Econnectix Corporation, rebranded to Kove in 2011) that develops Kove:SDM (Software-Defined Memory) — the world's first and only commercially available software-defined memory solution. The technology decouples memory from physical servers and pools it into an aggregate, provisionable, distributable resource across the data center using unmodified Commercial-Off-The-Shelf hardware, delivered as a RAM Area Network with Ethernet for the control plane and InfiniBand/RoCE for the data plane. Kove holds more than 65 issued patents worldwide covering the core SDM and XPD memory-pooling technologies, and in April 2024 won a $525 million patent infringement verdict against Amazon Web Services for infringement of three foundational cloud-storage scaling patents. The core products are Kove:SDM Software (licensed enterprise software) and Kove:SDM Memory Tower (a hardware-software appliance manufactured with Viking Enterprise Solutions / Sanmina, integrated with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and deployed via Computacenter). The company also integrates with Red Hat OpenShift, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Kove's revenue model combines software licensing (enterprise licenses with maintenance/support) for Kove:SDM and one-time hardware-software bundle sales for the Memory Tower; pricing is not publicly disclosed. The firm is founder-led (CEO Dr. John Overton) and appears to remain privately held without disclosed institutional funding rounds.

Name

Kove

Legal name

Kove IO, Inc.

Website

https://kove.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Kove is a Chicago-based, privately held software company that develops Kove:SDM, the world's first commercially available software-defined memory solution. It pools and provisions server memory across data centers, serving enterprise and government customers in financial services, HPC, defense, and AI/ML.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Memory Virtualization Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132), Computer Systems Design Services (541512)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Storage Virtualization & Software-Defined Storage (SDS) (HDABAEAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

SDN & Controller-Based Management (Campus/DC Fabrics) (HDAFAMAD)

Keywords

• Software-defined memory
• Memory virtualization software
• Memory pooling technology
• Enterprise memory infrastructure
• In-memory computing platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software-Defined Memory Software Licenses: Kove:SDM software is sold as a licensed solution for enterprise deployments. The software is deployed on COTS hardware, and customers pay for the software layer that enables memory virtualization. May include enterprise license agreements, subscription-based support and maintenance, and per-deployment licensing.
2. Kove:SDM Memory Tower Hardware-Software Solution: Kove:SDM Memory Tower is sold as a bundled hardware-software solution (rack of memory servers pre-equipped with Kove:SDM software). This is a capital expenditure purchase combining hardware integration (via Viking Enterprise Solutions/Sanmina) with the software-defined memory software.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Kove fundamentally develops and sells Kove:SDM, a software-defined memory (SDM) solution that decouples memory from physical servers and pools it into a shared, elastic, policy-provisionable resource across the data center using unmodified Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware. The offering is sold both as enterprise software licenses (Kove:SDM Software) and as a pre-integrated hardware-software appliance (Kove:SDM Memory Tower 39i, with 39+ TiB configurations) manufactured by Viking Enterprise Solutions. The solution serves enterprises running AI/ML training and inference, in-memory databases (Redis, Valkey, SAP HANA), HPC workloads, financial transaction processing, and containerized environments on Red Hat OpenShift.

Product overview

Kove offers a portfolio built around Kove:SDM (Software-Defined Memory), the world's first patented and commercially available software-defined memory solution. The core offering is the Kove:SDM Software, which virtualizes and pools memory across data center servers using unmodified COTS hardware. Complementing the software is the Kove:SDM Memory Tower — a hardware-software bundle delivering a fully integrated rack of memory servers pre-equipped with Kove:SDM software. Together, the software enables enterprises to pool, provision, and dynamically allocate memory across the data center, while the Memory Tower provides an immediately deployable appliance form factor. Both products share the same underlying Kove:SDM technology and are designed to work with existing infrastructure including Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Kove:SDM Software Kove:SDM is the world's first patented and commercially available software-defined memory solution. It decouples memory from servers, pooling memory into an aggregate, provisionable, and distributable resource across the data center using unmodified COTS hardware, delivering a RAM Area Network (RAN) that provisions memory using policies. It enables individual servers to draw from a common memory pool — including amounts far larger than a single physical server could contain — so each job receives exactly the memory it needs. Targets enterprises running AI/ML, in-memory databases (Redis, Valkey, SAP HANA), HPC, financial transaction processing, and containerized workloads on Red Hat OpenShift.
• Kove:SDM Memory Tower The Kove:SDM Memory Tower is a fully integrated rack of memory servers, each equipped with Kove:SDM software, providing 39+ TiB of real memory immediately usable and shareable across the data center. Built on Viking Enterprise Solutions VSS2320P 2U 32 High Performance Servers and running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Supports up to 128 TiB per process, delivers 60x performance vs. leading VMs, 125x faster processing than swap, up to 54% energy savings, and local memory performance from 150m+ away. Targets enterprises seeking an immediately deployable appliance form factor for high-performance memory pooling.

Quantifiable outcome

• 60x faster AI/ML training vs. leading virtual machines (validated by SWIFT with Red Hat OpenShift)
• +11 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature13 records

Partnerships

20 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Viking Enterprise Solutions (Sanmina)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 13 November 2024Viking Enterprise Solutions (product division of Sanmina) collaborated with Kove to create the Kove:SDM Memory Tower 39i — a fully integrated rack of memory servers equipped with Kove:SDM. VSS2320P 2U 32 High Performance Servers from Viking are used. Viking manufactures and delivers the Memory Tower hardware.
• ComputacentermajorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 13 November 2024Computacenter partnered with Kove and Viking Enterprise Solutions for the Memory Tower launch. Computacenter provides world-class engineering and enterprise-level support capabilities, ensuring smooth implementation from system integration to ongoing support. Identified potential deployments.
• LenovomajorGTM or Marketing Partner · 5 June 2023Kove announced it will provide Kove:SDM to Lenovo customers in the global energy and edge/AI sectors. Lenovo conducted validation research demonstrating Kove:SDM significantly boosted processing power of their hardware. CTO Vaughn Miller praised the results.
• Enterprise NeurosystemminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 April 2023Kove CEO John Overton serves as Vice Chair of Enterprise Neurosystem, a research community of leading academic institutions and chief scientists of America's top technology companies. Kove donated Kove:SDM technology worth >$5M to the AIM for Climate Grand Challenge hosted by Enterprise Neurosystem.
• AIM for Climate (Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 April 2023Kove supported the AIM for Climate Grand Challenge: Leveraging the Power of AI and Machine-Learning by providing Kove:SDM technology as a prize worth >$5M to accelerate climate-smart agriculture AI/ML innovation. AIM for Climate is a partnership of 47 governments led by US and UAE.
• Red HatcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 March 2023Kove is a certified Red Hat partner. Red Hat provides enterprise containers and hybrid cloud infrastructure capabilities (Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Enterprise Linux) for the SWIFT Federated AI Platform and general Kove:SDM deployments. Joint marketing at Red Hat Summit 2025 with two sessions featuring CEO John Overton. Red Hat tested and validated Kove:SDM performance gains.
• C3 AIcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 March 2023C3 AI partnered with Kove and Red Hat to enable SWIFT to create the next generation of transaction services. C3 AI provides AI expertise for the SWIFT Federated AI Platform. Kove:SDM enables C3 AI containers to scale 7.5x more on the same infrastructure.
• SWIFTcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) partnered with Kove starting in 2021 to build a Federated AI Platform. SWIFT connects 11,000+ banking organizations in 200+ countries processing 42M+ transactions/day worth $5T+. Kove:SDM enables SWIFT's AI/ML workloads to overcome memory limitations.
• CarahsoftminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. Carahsoft is a government technology distributor, suggesting Kove:SDM is distributed through Carahsoft's government channel.
• Argonne National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership formed in 2011 with Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) of Argonne National Laboratory to speed up scientific discovery. Customer for more than a decade. William (Bill) E. Allcock, Director of Operations, provided testimonial praising Kove's memory pooling capabilities.
• Los Alamos National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo. National research laboratory using Kove:SDM for HPC and supercomputing workloads.
• DARPAminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo. U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
• Deutsche Börse GroupminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. Global financial services provider.
• National Geospatial Intelligence AgencyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. U.S. intelligence agency.
• University of ChicagominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. Academic research partner.
• Purdue UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. Academic research partner.
• RegeneronminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. Life sciences company using Kove:SDM for memory-intensive computational workloads.
• CLS (Currency Lane Solutions)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. Financial services institution.
• DKRZ (German Climate Computing Centre)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website. German HPC research center.
• Chicago Police DepartmentminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a partner logo on Kove's website.

Scale indicators16 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Liqid: Liqid provides composable infrastructure software that disaggregates and pools compute, storage, and memory resources. It is conceptually aligned with Kove:SDM's pooled-memory vision, though typically delivered as a hardware-software stack.
• Netlist: Netlist develops high-performance memory subsystems and storage solutions and holds significant memory-related IP. It is comparable to Kove in the memory innovation and patent-licensing space, with some technology overlap.
• Pavilion Data Systems: Pavilion builds high-performance, disaggregated storage systems designed for AI/ML and analytics workloads. It shares Kove's focus on breaking the data center memory/storage performance barrier for data-intensive workloads.
• Diamanti: Diamanti provides a Kubernetes-native data center platform that combines compute, storage, and networking for containerized workloads. It overlaps with Kove's container-density and OpenShift value proposition.
• ScaleFlux: ScaleFlux provides computational storage drives and memory-aware infrastructure for AI and data center workloads. It competes in the same 'remove the data center memory/storage bottleneck' category as Kove:SDM.
• Xinnor: Xinnor develops high-performance storage and memory technologies (xiRAID, xiCore) for AI, HPC, and enterprise workloads. It intersects with Kove in the data center memory/storage performance layer serving AI/HPC customers.
• Lightbits Labs: Lightbits Labs offers software-defined storage (LightOS) optimized for NVMe/TCP and high-performance workloads. It is a peer in the broader software-defined data center infrastructure space relevant to Kove's customers.

Others

• Red Hat: Red Hat is both a Kove partner (OpenShift, RHEL integration) and an adjacent ecosystem player. Its OpenShift Data Foundation and container platform address overlapping customer workloads, making it a relevant adjacent peer.

Broad incumbents

• VMware (Broadcom): VMware (now part of Broadcom) is a broad incumbent in server virtualization and software-defined infrastructure (vSphere, vSAN). It competes indirectly with Kove in the enterprise infrastructure layer where memory virtualization is sold.

Direct peers

• MemVerge: MemVerge is the closest direct competitor to Kove, building software-defined memory and CXL-aware memory pooling software targeting AI, in-memory databases, and HPC. Both companies position pooled memory as a first-class data center resource.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kove

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kove