Chipmaking Startup Raises $120M, Announces New Edge Chip

Israeli chipmaking startup Hailo has raised $120 million in an extension of its series C funding round to build hardware for powering generative AI applications.

Founded in 2017, Hailo develops accelerators that enable users to run generative AI applications at the edge. Having expanded to the U.S., Europe and Taiwan, the startup has gone on to raise more than $340 million.

The Zisapel family, Delek Motors and DCLBA co-led the round. OurCrowd and Automotive Equipment also participated, along with angel investors Delek Motors CEO Gil Agmon and Israeli businessman Alfred Akirov.

Hailo has approximately 300 customers spanning sectors including automotive, retail and security. Its chips have been used to power autonomous tractors, smart cameras for retail, security and to help parking operators monitor vehicles.

The company also offers software tools including vision processing systems to power smart cameras and a development kit allowing users to build AI applications for Hailo devices.

The startup also announced a new hardware product, the new Hailo-10 GenAI accelerator chip designed to boost the performance of AI edge applications while reducing power consumption. The startup claims the Hailo-10 chip is twice as powerful and uses half the energy of Intel’s Core Ultra NPU.

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“The closing of our new funding round enables us to leverage all the exciting opportunities in our pipeline while setting the stage for our long-term future growth,” said Orr Danon, Hailo CEO and co-founder. “Together with the introduction of our Hailo-10 GenAI accelerator, it strategically positions us to bring classic and generative AI to edge devices in ways that will significantly expand the reach and impact of this remarkable new technology,” 

Hailo says it wants to expand applications for its new hardware product, with plans to target PCs and car infotainment systems. Samples of the new Hailo-10 will begin shipping in Q2 2024.

“Whether users employ generative AI to automate real-time translation or summarization services, generate software code, or images and videos from text prompts, Hailo-10 lets them do it directly on their PCs or other edge systems, without straining the CPU or draining the battery,” said Danon.