Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Expedera raises $20 million for AI chip tech

Expedera, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $20 million in Series B funding.

Expedera is a licensor of edge inference artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor intellectual property (IP.

Expedera introduced its Origin NPU IP in 2021. Origin IP scales to 128 TOPS with a single engine and features highly efficient processor utilization with market-leading low-power consumption while requiring minimal external memory bandwidth. Expedera has production license contracts with multiple smartphone OEMs and numerous automotive, AR/VR/MR, and consumer device chipset makers. Its Origin IP has been deployed in over 10M devices.

The company says the funding will enable it to advance its high-performance, energy-efficient Neural Processing Unit (NPU) IP products and services and expand its global engineering footprint.

The funding round was led by indie Semiconductor, with participation from prominent repeat and new industry investors. This investment, which includes converting a previous SAFE note, brings the company's total funding to more than $47M. 

"AI is rapidly becoming one of the most important enablers for all market segments where edge computation and data intelligence is paramount, including in the automotive space," said Donald McClymont, indie co-founder and CEO. "Expedera has quickly emerged as the market leader in enabling edge inference with its Origin NPU IP. indie is excited to be on this journey with Expedera as it unlocks multiple new applications - including ADAS and sensor fusion - with class-leading edge AI performance and efficiency." 

"Since our Series A round, Expedera has dramatically increased the capabilities of our Origin hardware and software stack, added support for leading-edge neural networks, grown our customer base, and expanded into a global company," said Da Chuang, Expedera co-founder and CEO. "The addition of indie as lead among our new investors, and the continued support of our existing investors is a testament to the strength of Expedera's NPU solutions." 

https://www.expedera.com

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