SynSense banks investment of 10 million US dollars for neuromorphic computing

SynSense has closed a Pre-B+ financing round and raised 10 million US dollars in the process. The round was led by the Hong Kong-based Ausvic Capital, further details of which can be found in a press release. The venture capital firm specializes in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data. The work of SynSense focuses on neuromorphic computing.

This term essentially means calculation methods carried out using neuromorphic chips, which have the capacity to learn in a similar fashion to the human brain. With this neuromorphic technology, SynSense plans to “achieve revolutionary breakthroughs in edge computing technology and to expand the boundaries of ultra-low-power AI applications at the edge”, as founder and CEO Ning Qiao explains in the press release.

The fresh capital will be used to launch mass production of the smart vision sensor developed by SynSense, which is named Speck. According to information from the company itself, this is an event-driven vision sensor with an AI processor comprising 320,000 neurons. Moreover, it is the first of its kind in the world and delivers real-time vision processing at milliwatt power consumption. The Xylo family of ultra-low-power devices for low-dimensional signal processing is set to enter mass production in the second half of this year.

Ray Li from Ausvic Capital, which led the financing round, explains that the neuromorphic approach from SynSense represents a highly promising pathway: “We are confident that SynSense will emerge as a top-tier player in the industry, gaining unicorn status in the process”.

SynSense was founded in 2017 and is a spin-off from the Institute of Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). In 2020, the company transferred its headquarters to Chengdu in China, but continues to operate an office in Zurich too. mm