Startup Syntiant ships 20 million AI processors, raises $55 million
Syntiant Corp. (Irvine, Calif.), the developer of analog machine learning processors for the edge, has shipped more than 20 million chips and closed $55 million in a round of funding.
The company had shipped 1 million units by August 2020 (see AI audio startup ships one million ICs, raises funds).
The latest tranche of money will be used to produce a third-generation of the Syntiant processor and software development. The company expects to introduce the Syntiant Core 3 processor in 2023.
The company’s analog approach to edge-AI allows it to address always-on voice, sensor, audio and image applications with low power consumption. The latest round of finance brings the sum raised since the company’s founding in 2017 to more than $100 million. The established investors include Amazon, Applied Materials, Atlantic Bridge Capital, Bosch, Intel Capital, and Microsoft and Motorola.
Renesas Electronics Corp., Millennium Technology Value Partners and Mirae Asset Capital are among five new investors. Existing investors also participated in the raise.
Quotes
“We are at a pivotal point of our company’s growth and development, having shipped more than 20 million of our Neural Decision Processors as global market demand for edge AI rises among device manufacturers,” said Kurt Busch, CEO at Syntiant, in a statement. “We have built a strong customer pipeline that represents the leading suppliers, from earbuds to automobiles and most everything in between. This new round of funding will help us expedite full production deployments among more than 50 current customer engagements, as our technology continues to make edge AI accessible to any battery-powered device.”
Sailesh Chittipeddi, the general manager of IoT at Renesas, commented: “By leveraging Syntiant’s leadership position in deep learning edge compute, our collaborations are enhancing user experiences through advanced AI-based voice and vision processing solutions across many use cases, such as security systems, personal devices, industrial and manufacturing, transportation and logistics.”
“We have researched dozens of edge AI chip companies, and Syntiant is the first we have seen to develop a software-centric turnkey solution that is already being deployed at scale,” said Jay Chong, partner at Millennium Technology Value Partners. “When it comes to semiconductors, benchmarking hardware performance is always important, but ease of integration and implementation are equally important.”
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