Dutch AI semiconductor startup Axelera AI launches with $12 million funding round

The AI semiconductor startup Axelera AI announced today that it has successfully closed a seed funding round of $12 million. The round was led by Bitfury, a leading company in new technologies. Other partners included the global research and development center for nanoelectronics imec and the deep-tech venture capital funds Innovation Industries and imec.xpand. The funding will support the company in developing a industry-leading product that enables AI applications at the edge.

Axelera AI was founded in 2019 by the Bitfury Group and previously operated as Bitfury AI until the company became an independent entity this year. Building on its extensive research and development work focused on integrating top-tier hardware and software technologies for edge and cloud-to-edge enterprise solutions, Axelera AI has been collaborating with imec since early 2020 to develop a groundbreaking computing architecture for high-performance AI. Axelera AI is headquartered at the AI Innovation Center of the High-Tech Campus in Eindhoven and also maintains R&D offices in Leuven (BE) and Zurich (CH). The company has already recruited a top team of more than 20 senior engineers and developers from leading AI companies and research centers worldwide, including Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, and imec.

"With our launch as a new, independent company and the closing of this investment, Axelera AI now asserts its position as a significant player in the global AI sector," comments Fabrizio del Maffeo, CEO and co-founder of Axelera AI. "Our exceptional team combines complementary expertise in software development, image processing, data stream architecture, in-memory computing, algorithms, and quantization with a proven track record, and we look forward to building on our extensive research and development to introduce new solutions worldwide in the coming years."

"Bitfury has a proven track record of developing and commercializing groundbreaking technologies," says Valery Vavilov, CEO and co-founder of the Bitfury Group. "LiquidStack, the emerging market leader in two-phase liquid cooling for the most intensive computer applications in the world, and Crystal Blockchain, the most advanced blockchain analysis platform for compliance in digital asset markets, are just a few examples. We are very excited to support the launch of Axelera AI, which will accelerate the development and deployment of critical AI solutions across all global markets."

"Over the years, imec has researched custom circuits and novel architectures for efficient AI that utilize in-memory computing, algorithms, and quantization," comments Diederik Verkest, program director for machine learning at imec. "We are proud that, following our collaboration with the Bitfury Group, we can leverage and contribute this expertise to ensure that Axelera AI develops and brings to market the best possible product for the edge AI market."

Axelera AI is a unique Dutch startup that has embarked on developing a groundbreaking AI chip that will accelerate AI applications at the "Edge of IoT," says Sander Verbrugge, partner at Innovation Industries. "Affordable AI computing power with low energy consumption is essential to unlocking the full potential of AI in our daily lives. We are proud to be part of this journey and to support this world-class team in realizing its ambitions."

"Axelera AI has assembled an excellent team, bringing together several different in-memory computing projects from across Europe under one roof. We look forward to working with Fabrizio and his team and helping them achieve their ambitious goals by leveraging the cross-border, value-creating platform and network of imec.xpand," said Cyril Vančura, partner at imec.xpand.