AI chip startup Axelera raises $27 million in funding to commercialise its hardware

• ByStartupStory     |    October 26, 2022

Del Maffeo and team secured capital from VCs including Imec’s venture arm, Imex.xpand, after incubating a startup — Axelera AI — to commercialise their chip technology within the blockchain company Bitfury Group. Axelera AI received a $27 million Series A round led by Innovation Industries, with participation from Imec.xpand and the Federal Holding and Investment Company of Belgium. Furthermore, Axelera AI received a $6.7 million loan from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

Axelera is developing AI acceleration cards and systems for use cases such as security, retail, and robotics, which it intends to sell through business-to-business edge computing and Internet of Things partners. The cards and systems are equipped with Axelera’s Thetis Core chip, which uses in-memory computing for AI computations — “in-memory” refers to running calculations in RAM to reduce latency introduced by storage devices. Axelera is also developing software to manage its chip, which, according to Del Maffeo, will be “fully integrated” with leading AI frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow when it is released.

Del Maffeo anticipates that Axelera will enter early 2023 with 130 to 140 employees after expanding in the United States and Taiwan in the coming months. If Axelera can keep its promises, it stands to make a lot of money. The edge AI hardware market is expected to grow from 920 million units in 2021 to 2.08 billion units by 2026, representing a significant increase. According to one estimate, the market for AI chips alone will be worth $73.49 billion by 2025.

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