San Francisco-based Stoa has announced that it has received an investment from the 212 fund to develop its platform dedicated to trading and pricing physical hardware used in AI applications, with a primary focus on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Through this funding, the company aims to strengthen its engineering and data teams, expand its network of suppliers and buyers, and enhance its presence in international markets.
Stoa was founded in 2026 by Berat Çelik, Eren Berke Sağlam, and Kaan Yiğit, and is part of the Y Combinator Summer 2026 batch. The company's business model relies on two main technical products:
- Stoa Markets: A marketplace that connects companies looking to buy with verified suppliers. The platform coordinates the entire process, from gathering competitive bids to completing the transaction, while integrating vital services such as inspection, shipping, insurance, and financing through specialized partners.
- Stoa Intelligence: A tool that provides price indices and valuation data to help companies track the market value of the hardware they own. The pricing model in this tool relies on precise criteria including model type, technical configuration, operational status, and lifespan, deriving its data from actual transactions conducted through the platform.
Why does this development matter?
Stoa's importance lies in addressing a regulatory gap in the AI infrastructure market; experts note that the prices of physical GPUs can move quite differently from the prices of renting cloud computing capacity. This discrepancy creates financial risks for organizations that own these assets or seek to finance them.
By providing price transparency and a stock exchange-like infrastructure for physical hardware, Stoa seeks to transform the GPU market from a fragmented, opaque market into an organized one where price volatility risks can be managed. Kıvanç Aydın, a partner at 212, noted that the weight of GPUs on corporate balance sheets is increasing as investment in AI infrastructure grows, making the need for precise pricing tools urgent.
Future Vision
The company plans to expand the scope of its solutions by 2027, aiming to develop financial products directly linked to the value of GPU hardware, which will enable more advanced tools for managing physical hardware price volatility and facilitating financing operations.