Israeli AI chipmaker Hailo raised an additional $136 million on Tuesday during a private fundraising event participated in by Gil Agmon, the CEO and majority shareholder of Delek Motors and Poalim Equity, an Israeli-based investment bank. The new funding for Hailo is intended to support the expansion of edge AI as demand for the technology increases across the world.
Hailo’s $136 million funding is the biggest of its kind in the edge AI space, and it was necessitated by the explosion of advanced AI processors demand. These processors are being increasingly used in automobiles, smart retail ventures, smart cities ,and more.
The series C funding round for Hailo was supported by established investors like ABB Technology Ventures, a Swiss-based company, Latitude Ventures in London, Zohar Zisapel, Hailo Chairman, and Israel’s OurCrowd. Existing investors were not the only ones to contribute, however, as new investors like Shlomo Group, Comasco, Carasso Motors, Talcar Corporation ,and more were invited.
In another significant move for Hailo, the company announced that Mooly Eden, a former Senior VP at Intel Corporation, will become a member of Hailo’s board of directors. Eyal Waldman, former CEO of Mellanox Technologies, will also join Hailo, this time on the company’s advisory board.
With the additional $136 million in funds, Hailo’s total funding now stands at $224 million, and the chipmaker will reportedly use this money to address the increased interest in the Hailo-8 AI Processor for Edge Devices. This development comes amid an explosion in interest in advanced AI chips from different industries. Due to the funding, Hailo will be able to work on developing more advanced technologies and expanding its product lines in both existing and new markets.
On the subject of the new funding, Orr Dan, Co-Founder and CEO of Hailo, said in a statement “This tremendous support is a testament of our unparalleled edge AI product line, and we look forward to empowering even smarter and swifter devices, and thus, a more robust future powered by AI”.
Hailo’s Hailo-8 chip is designed with a reimagined and unique architecture that is modeled after the neural networks of the human brain. The chip is able to provide efficient performance for smart devices; performance that is also equivalent to the performance of larger computers. With the Hailo-8 chip, companies can both access the strength of AI more cheaply, and improve their efficiency as well.
As a result of increased demand and interest, Hailo has embarked on a mission to expand its product offerings. For example, it launched its Mini PCle and M.2 high-performance modules recently to facilitate edge devices. As a result, Hailo’s customer base has also expanded. Hailo’s AI processor takes a new approach to computer architecture and allows devices to perform processing-heavy tasks like object detection.
Over two quarters of 2021, the chipmaker served over 100 clients as more companies demanded AI chips and modules designed to improve efficiency and support the functions of smart devices. Hailo also recently announced a partnership agreement with Macnica, a leading Japanese semiconductor distributor.