Rijswijk, South Holland-based Innatera, a pioneer in ultra-efficient neuromorphic processors, announced on Tuesday that has secured €15M in a Series A financing round, co-financed by the EIC Fund, as well as existing investors MIG Capital, Matterwave Ventures, and Delft Enterprises.
The Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund is investing €4.8M in this Series A round.
The latest capital will help Innatera to accelerate scale-up to large-scale production, expand the range of applications, and invest in the relationship network.
Johan Stins, senior investment manager of the Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, says, “We are excited to support Innatera, a leader in the development of neuromorphic chips for energy-efficient devices. This investment fits in completely with our aim to invest in key technologies that bring both economic progress and environmental sustainability. Neuromorphic computing, by mimicking the efficiency of the human brain, represents an important step towards reducing the energy consumption of AI technologies.”
The announcement comes six months after getting selected for ScaleNL Accelerator – West Coast ’23 Cohort. The ScaleNL Accelerator – West Coast is an immersive 12-week programme designed to empower tech startup founders on their journey toward US market entry.
Earlier last year, the company made it into the EIC Accelerator programme.
Innatera: Developing ultra-efficient microprocessors
Founded as a spin-off of the TU Delft, Innatera designs ultra-efficient microprocessors that closely mimic the brain’s mechanisms for processing sensor data.
This chip enables high-performance signal processing and pattern recognition while consuming a fraction of the energy used by regular processors.
The AI functionality integrated into Innatera’s chip is based on Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs). Unlike traditional neural networks, which continuously process all data, SNNs only respond to relevant events.
This feature makes them highly efficient at processing sensor data, which frequently includes a lot of noise and redundancy.
Invest-NL: Financing and development institution
Invest-NL is the Netherlands’ national financing and development institution.
As an impact investor, it focuses on enabling financing for companies initially considered unfinanceable.
The Dutch firm focuses on critical societal challenges in collaboration with other financiers, investors, and development specialists in the public and private sectors.
It includes moving towards a carbon-neutral and circular economy, ensuring affordable and accessible healthcare, and supporting deep technological innovations.
In collaboration with the EIF, Invest-NL has developed various financial products for the Dutch market, including the InnovFin guarantee facility (€66M), Dutch Future Fund I, and the Dutch Alternative Credit Initiative (DACI) (€200M).
Invest-NL is now an implementation partner of the European Commission’s InvestEU program and offers a guarantee scheme that covers up to €350M in investment capital for sustainable and innovative companies.
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