SiMa.ai Secures Funds and Readies New Generative Edge AI Platform

Rhea-AI Summary

SiMa.ai raises $70M in funding led by Maverick Capital, totaling $270M; to accelerate release of next generation AI/ML chip for edge devices. The funding will support the development of a software-centric platform for all edge AI, catering to multimodal generative AI applications.

Insights

Market Research Analyst

SiMa.ai's recent funding round, which brings its total capital to $270M, is a significant event in the edge AI/ML sector. This sector is experiencing rapid growth due to the increasing demand for processing power at the edge, which is driven by the proliferation of IoT devices and the need for real-time data processing in applications such as autonomous vehicles, drones and smart manufacturing. The edge computing market is expected to reach $43.4 billion by 2027, according to a report by Grand View Research, indicating a compound annual growth rate of 37.4% from 2020. SiMa.ai's focus on a software-centric platform that supports all modalities from computer vision to generative AI positions it well to capture a share of this expanding market.

The company's emphasis on multimodal generative AI for edge devices is particularly noteworthy. Multimodal AI, which involves the integration of multiple types of data input, such as text, audio and visual, is becoming increasingly important for creating more natural and efficient human-machine interactions. By advancing the capabilities of edge devices to handle such complex AI tasks, SiMa.ai is aligning itself with future technology trends that could redefine how edge computing is utilized across various industries.

Furthermore, the backing by prominent investors like Maverick Capital and Point72 adds credibility to SiMa.ai's growth prospects and could signal to the market that the company is a serious contender in the edge AI space. This funding round could also have a positive impact on the company's valuation, potentially leading to favorable terms in future financing rounds or even positioning it as an attractive acquisition target for larger tech companies seeking to enhance their edge AI capabilities.

Financial Analyst

The infusion of $70M in funding for SiMa.ai, led by Maverick Capital, is a strategic move that reflects investor confidence in the company's technology and market potential. From a financial perspective, the capital injection will enable SiMa.ai to accelerate its product development cycle, particularly the release of its second-generation Machine Learning System-on-Chip (MLSoC). The ability to meet customer demand and shorten the time to market for new products is important for maintaining a competitive edge and capturing market share in the fast-paced tech industry.

SiMa.ai's reported industry-leading performance and efficiency metrics, as validated by the MLCommons MLPerf Inference benchmark, suggest that the company is not only innovating but also delivering on its promises. Such performance can translate into lower operational costs for customers, making SiMa.ai's offerings more attractive compared to competitors. If the company continues to demonstrate superior efficiency and performance in its next-generation MLSoC, it could secure a dominant position in the edge AI market, which would be favorable for its financial health and investor returns in the long run.

It's also important to note that SiMa.ai's success hinges on the widespread adoption of edge AI and its ability to continue outperforming competitors. Any shifts in market trends or technological advancements by competitors could pose risks to SiMa.ai's growth trajectory. Investors should monitor the company's execution of its product roadmap and its ability to maintain technological leadership in a rapidly evolving industry.

Technology Analyst

SiMa.ai's Machine Learning System-on-Chip (MLSoC) represents a significant advancement in the field of edge AI technology. The first-generation MLSoC's focus on vision-centric edge inference aligns with the current demand for computer vision applications, which are critical for autonomous systems, security and various IoT devices. The company's strategic move to develop a second-generation MLSoC tailored for multimodal generative AI is a forward-thinking approach, as it anticipates the future requirements of edge computing where versatility in processing different types of data inputs becomes essential.

The unique fusion of hardware and software in SiMa.ai's MLSoC allows for the processing of any model size or type on its silicon architecture, which is a competitive advantage. This adaptability is key in an industry where the types of data and models used are constantly evolving. By providing a single platform that can handle various AI/ML modalities, SiMa.ai is addressing a significant pain point for device manufacturers and application developers who seek to integrate AI capabilities without being constrained by hardware limitations.

SiMa.ai's commitment to optimizing end-to-end model execution and performance, as evidenced by their results in the MLCommons MLPerf Inference benchmark, demonstrates that they are not only focusing on the flexibility of their platform but also on efficiency and performance—two factors that are paramount for edge computing solutions. The company's approach could set a new standard for edge AI chips, influencing how future technologies are developed in this space.

Oversubscribed $70M round led by Maverick Capital increases SiMa.ai’s total amount raised to $270M; funding will speed release of next generation AI/ML chip to power multimodal generative AI at the edge

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- SiMa.ai, the software-centric, embedded edge machine learning system-on-chip company, today announced it has raised an additional $70M of funding 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. SiMa.ai will utilize the $270M raised to date to continue meeting customer demand for edge AI/ML with its first-generation Machine Learning System-on-Chip (MLSoC) while accelerating the delivery of its second-generation MLSoC for release in Q1 of 2025.

With the release of the second-generation MLSoC, SiMa.ai will unveil one software-centric platform for all edge AI. 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 rapid proliferation of generative AI is simplifying the way we interact with AI/ML, namely through multimodal inputs such as text-to-speech, text-to-image, speech-to-text, speech-to-image, audio-to-image, image-to-image and image-to-video. Edge devices such as robots, drones, diagnostic machines, autonomous vehicles and more must be equipped to handle this new, more collaborative interface. The first-generation SiMa.ai MLSoC delivers industry leading performance and efficiency for vision-centric edge inference. Future generations will power and process any modality customers prefer with even greater performance and power efficiency. Uniquely designed to help customers capitalize on the opportunity that the shift of generative AI to the edge represents, SiMa.ai’s MLSoC’s unique fusion of hardware and software processes any model size or type on its silicon architecture.

“AI — particularly the rapid rise of generative AI — is fundamentally reshaping the way that humans and machines work together. Our customers are poised to benefit from giving sight, sound and speech to their edge devices, which is exactly what our next generation MLSoC is designed to do,” said Krishna Rangasayee, Founder and CEO at SiMa.ai. “We have established undeniable technology leadership with our first generation MLSoC and with that momentum, also recognized the imminent need to equip our customers with one software-centric platform that supports all modalities from computer vision to GenAI. To that end, we’re accelerating our ability to execute and have strengthened our investor base even further with the addition of Maverick Capital, Point72 and others, as we remain laser focused on powering the edge the world relies on.”

“The computational intensity of generative AI has precipitated a paradigm shift in data center architecture. The next phase in this evolution will be widespread adoption of AI at the edge. Just as the data center has been revolutionized, the edge computing landscape is poised for a complete transformation,” said Andrew Homan, Senior Managing Director at Maverick Capital. “SiMa.ai possesses the essential trifecta of a best-in-class team, cutting-edge technology and forward momentum, positioning it as a key partner for customers traversing this tectonic shift. We are excited to join forces with SiMa.ai to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

SiMa.ai MLSoC: One Software-Centric Platform for All Edge AI

The current generation of SiMa.ai’s MLSoC consistently demonstrates embedded edge market leadership for performance and power efficiency, validated most recently by the MLCommons® MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results, where SiMa.ai competed in the Inference 4.0 closed, edge, power division category. SiMa.ai’s best in class results in FPS/W in these benchmarks are a result of continuous innovation to MLSoC and Palette software to optimize end-to-end model execution and performance. For more detailed information about recent updates to Palette 1.2, which include expanded support for C++ and support for developing on Windows, read here.

Made possible by SiMa.ai’s proprietary combination of silicon and software, the MLSoC adapts to any framework, any network, any model or sensor, and with the addition of Gen 2, any modality: audio, speech, text, image and more. SiMa.ai is poised to address customers’ computer vision, transformer and multimodal generative AI needs all in one, software-centric platform.

Utilizing one platform for all edge AI, SiMa.ai customers will benefit from a range of high performance and power optimized AI/ML made available through multiple generations of the SiMa.ai MLSoC. For more information on SiMa.ai’s one software-centric platform for all edge AI, please read The Next Chapter at SiMa.ai: One Platform for All Edge AI on the SiMa.ai blog.

The second-generation SiMa.ai MLSoC includes innovations from Arm, Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS) and TSMC, specifically:

• An Arm® Cortex®-A CPU, which is a key component of SiMa.ai’s heterogeneous compute platform for overall application development. Arm’s large, diverse software partner ecosystem further extends SiMa.ai’s reach to customers with specialized use cases.
• Synopsys EV74 Embedded Vision Processors, which enable critical pre-and-post processing in computer vision applications on a single chip. Synopsys full-stack AI-driven EDA suite and ZeBu emulation system further accelerated the design, verification and software bring-up of MLSoC.
• TSMC’s N6 technology, which offers further performance and power optimizations for MLSoC customers.

“As edge AI scales, the ecosystem is navigating growing software complexity and ever-increasing demand for AI performance, and is converging on Arm as the computing platform of choice from cloud to edge,” said Paul Williamson, SVP and GM IoT Line of Business, Arm. “It’s exciting to see continued innovation from partners such as SiMa.ai in this space, and we look forward to continued collaboration as we build the future of edge AI on Arm.”

“Synopsys celebrates the success of SiMa.ai as the company continues to push the limits of AI/ML computing at the embedded edge,” said Ravi Subramanian, general manager of the Systems Design Group at Synopsys. “Our close collaboration with SiMa.ai across Synopsys’ full-stack AI-driven EDA suite, broad IP portfolio including the Synopsys ARC EV Vision Processor, and hardware-assisted verification solution has enabled SiMa.ai to achieve first-pass silicon success and accelerate development of their high-performance, power-efficient AI designs.”

"The first-time silicon success of SiMa.ai’s first-generation MLSoC marks a significant milestone in our partnership, delivering an embedded edge ML platform with industry-leading performance and efficiency," said Sajiv Dalal, Executive Vice President of Business Development at TSMC North America. "We are committed to supporting innovators like SiMa.ai, harnessing our most advanced technologies to enable differentiated solutions that meet the rapidly evolving demands in AI.”

SiMa.ai Resources

SiMa.ai will be presenting at Embedded World April 9-11, 2024, and will be stationed at Booth 550 in Hall 2. Click here to request a meeting or to learn more.

Quick links on SiMa.ai:

• Buy the SiMa.ai MLSoC Development Kit online
• SiMa.ai recognized as an IDC innovator in AIML at the edge
• SiMa.ai awarded as GSA’s 2023 Startup to Watch
• SiMa.ai partners with Supermicro

About SiMa.ai

SiMa.ai is the software-centric, embedded edge machine learning system-on-chip (MLSoC) company. SiMa.ai’s hardware to software stack flexibly adjusts to any framework, network, model, sensor, or modality all in one platform. Edge ML applications that run completely on the SiMa.ai MLSoC see a tenfold increase in performance and energy efficiency, bringing higher fidelity intelligence to ML use cases spanning computer vision to generative AI, in minutes. With SiMa.ai, customers unlock new paths to revenue and significant cost savings to innovate at the edge across industrial manufacturing, retail, aerospace, defense, agriculture, and healthcare. SiMa.ai was founded in 2018, has raised $270M and is backed by Fidelity, Maverick Capital, Point72, MSD Partners, VentureTech Alliance and more.

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Jordan Beadle

SBS Comms for SiMa.ai

sima@sbscomms.com

Source: SiMa.ai

FAQ

What is the latest funding amount raised by SiMa.ai and who led the round?

SiMa.ai raised $70M in funding led by Maverick Capital, bringing the total raised amount to $270M.

How will SiMa.ai utilize the $270M raised?

SiMa.ai will use the funding to meet customer demand for edge AI/ML with its first-generation MLSoC and accelerate the delivery of its second-generation MLSoC set for release in Q1 of 2025.

What is the focus of SiMa.ai's second-generation MLSoC?

The second-generation MLSoC aims to provide a software-centric platform for all edge AI, catering to multimodal generative AI applications.

Which investors participated in the funding round for SiMa.ai?

Participation in the funding round came from Point72, Jericho, Amplify Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Lip-Bu Tan, and others.

How does SiMa.ai plan to support customers' AI/ML journey with its platform?

SiMa.ai's platform scales with customers as their AI/ML journey evolves, from computer vision to transformers to multimodal generative AI, simplifying interactions with AI/ML.