SiMa.ai, a leading developer of embedded edge machine learning system-on-chip (MLSoC) solutions, has announced the closing of an oversubscribed $70 million funding round led by Maverick Capital with participation from Point72 and Jericho, as well as existing investors Amplify Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Lip-Bu Tan and others.
This brings the San Jose–headquartered startup’s total funding to $270 million, further solidifying their position in the rapidly growing edge AI market.
Just a while back, we had written about how, Scrut Automation had raised $10M to integrate Gen AI in mid-market businesses and expand in North America. Moreover, you can also have a look at a feature piece on, “The rise of Gen AI: Pros and cons, prospects and will it take our job?“
How will the funds be used
The new funding will be used to accelerate the development and release of SiMa.ai’s second-generation MLSoC, scheduled for launch in Q1 2025. This next-generation chip will be a significant leap forward, offering a single, software-centric platform for all edge AI applications.
“SiMa.ai’s ‘one platform for all edge AI’ scales with customers as their AI/ML journey evolves, from computer vision, to transformers to multimodal generative AI,” the press release states.
Generative AI, which allows for human-computer interaction through various modalities such as text-to-speech and speech-to-image, is rapidly transforming how we interact with machines. SiMa.ai’s second-generation MLSoC is specifically designed to empower edge devices like robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles to handle this new wave of interactive AI.
First-gen MLSoC delivers industry-leading performance
While the second-generation MLSoC promises a revolution in edge AI capabilities, SiMa.ai’s current offering is no slouch. Their first-generation MLSoC has already established itself as an industry leader in performance and efficiency, particularly for vision-centric applications. This is further validated by SiMa.ai’s recent success in the MLCommons MLPerf Inference benchmark, where they achieved top marks in the edge power efficiency category.
SiMa.ai’s CEO, Krishna Rangasayee, emphasised the company’s established leadership in edge AI due to the success of their first-generation MLSoC. He further highlighted their recognition of a critical need: equipping customers with a unified software platform that can handle diverse AI applications, ranging from computer vision to cutting-edge generative AI (GenAI).
To achieve this ambitious goal, SiMa.ai is not only accelerating development but also bolstering its investor base with the addition of prominent firms like Maverick Capital and Point72. Rangasayee reaffirmed the company’s unwavering focus: to be the driving force behind the world’s ever-evolving edge computing landscape.
Strategic partnerships and industry support
The startup highlights key partnerships that have contributed to their success. The company leverages technology from industry giants like Arm, Synopsys, and TSMC.
- Arm provides the Arm Cortex-A CPU, a crucial component for application development within SiMa.ai’s heterogeneous compute platform.
- Synopsys contributes Synopsys EV74 Embedded Vision Processors, enabling efficient pre- and post-processing for computer vision tasks directly on the chip. Additionally, Synopsys’ design and verification tools played a significant role in accelerating the development of the MLSoC.
- TSMC supplies the N6 manufacturing technology, offering further performance and power optimizations for SiMa.ai customers.
What we think about the startup
SiMa.ai’s latest funding round and upcoming second-generation MLSoC mark a significant step forward in the evolution of edge AI. With its focus on a unified software-centric platform and support for the latest trends like generative AI, SiMa.ai is well-positioned to empower a wide range of edge device applications across various industries.
The company’s strategic partnerships and commitment to innovation further solidify their position as a leader in the edge AI space.
