Jan 23, 2020
Kneron Closes Series A2 Funding of $40m
Horizons Ventures leads again pushing total Series A over $70m.
January 23, 2020 - San Diego - San Diego-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Kneron closed its series A2 funding round at $40 million, adding to a series A round that now totals $73 million.
Led by Horizons Ventures –– a venture capital firm that manages private investments in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors for Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-Shing–– and prominent investors including Sequoia, Alibaba, and Qualcomm took tranches in the company’s A2 round.
In an interview with EE Times, Kneron CEO Albert Liu revealed that the newly acquired investment capital will be used to fund R&D and commercialize the company’s second-generation AI processor, KL720, scheduled for sampling by mid-summer. The company has presently begun to demonstrate a prototype of the chip to customers.
“[We plan to] hire engineers and developers to support current purchase orders, as well as forecasted purchase orders for the KL720,” Liu told the publication.
Since 2015, Kneron has worked to create end-to-end solutions optimized for AI on edge devices, such as mobile phones, personal computers, smart home devices, security cameras, payment portals, and smart cars. The company’s key solutions include integrated system-on-chip (SoC) chipsets and proprietary neural processing unit (NPU) technology.
In recent years, edge computing has garnered increasing attention within the realm of microelectronics.
“Today’s microelectronics are organized with 80% of things in the cloud and 20% on the edge. In five years from now, it will be reversed. It will be 80% on the edge and only 20% in the cloud,” Emmanuel Sabonnadière, chief executive of Leti –– a leading research institutes in the field –– said in an interview with Semiconductor Engineering.
“We are excited to continue our journey with partners like Horizons Ventures who share our passion and dedication towards our mission to enable AI on any device, democratize AI, and build the Edge AI Net,” Liu said to Crunchbase News in an interview.
Led by Horizons Ventures –– a venture capital firm that manages private investments in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors for Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-Shing–– and prominent investors including Sequoia, Alibaba, and Qualcomm took tranches in the company’s A2 round.
In an interview with EE Times, Kneron CEO Albert Liu revealed that the newly acquired investment capital will be used to fund R&D and commercialize the company’s second-generation AI processor, KL720, scheduled for sampling by mid-summer. The company has presently begun to demonstrate a prototype of the chip to customers.
“[We plan to] hire engineers and developers to support current purchase orders, as well as forecasted purchase orders for the KL720,” Liu told the publication.
Since 2015, Kneron has worked to create end-to-end solutions optimized for AI on edge devices, such as mobile phones, personal computers, smart home devices, security cameras, payment portals, and smart cars. The company’s key solutions include integrated system-on-chip (SoC) chipsets and proprietary neural processing unit (NPU) technology.
In recent years, edge computing has garnered increasing attention within the realm of microelectronics.
“Today’s microelectronics are organized with 80% of things in the cloud and 20% on the edge. In five years from now, it will be reversed. It will be 80% on the edge and only 20% in the cloud,” Emmanuel Sabonnadière, chief executive of Leti –– a leading research institutes in the field –– said in an interview with Semiconductor Engineering.
“We are excited to continue our journey with partners like Horizons Ventures who share our passion and dedication towards our mission to enable AI on any device, democratize AI, and build the Edge AI Net,” Liu said to Crunchbase News in an interview.
