• Kneron

  Participated · Series B · Sep 2023

  Kneron designs low-powered, reconfigurable ASICs for AI inferencing that interface with existing systems such as sensors on driverless vehicles. Its chips run models ranging from face and body detection to text generation and are positioned for latency-, security- and cost-sensitive edge applications. The company emphasizes automotive and other autonomous-machine markets while avoiding direct competition with dominant cloud incumbents in the short term. Kneron plans to scale commercial efforts and expand its R&D-heavy headcount. Revenue is in the "double digit millions," and the company serves roughly 30 brands including Garmin, Naver and Quanta. Through its April acquisition of imaging provider Otus, Kneron has automotive partnerships including JVC Kenwood. Kneron develops full-stack hardware and software products aimed at edge AI applications, with reconfigurable solutions designed to address latency, security and cost challenges on edge devices. The company says its technology enables broader deployment of AI across devices. Over the past year Kneron reported significant new customer wins across multiple verticals including smart vehicles, smart homes and smart cities. Named customers in the article include Garmin, Dessmann, Gree, OFILM, AAEON, Advantech and Quanta. Led by CEO Albert Liu, Kneron intends to use the funding to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The company raised $48M in a Series B funding round. Kneron is an AI chipmaker founded in 2015 that develops reconfigurable edge AI semiconductors for devices including ADAS and autonomous-vehicle systems. The company is based in San Diego and Taipei and has released its first automotive-grade chips for ADAS and AV applications. Kneron reports $3–4 million in monthly revenue from about 30 enterprise customers, with 30–40% of revenues coming from the U.S. It is pushing into smart transportation and roadside AI, arguing that L4/L5 autonomy requires roadside perception units, and plans joint development of roadside AI boxes with strategic partners. Its chips are described as 'reconfigurable', combining software flexibility with hardware speed and usable both inside vehicles and on exterior sensors. Kneron has formed partnerships and made acquisitions (including buying Vatics from Vivotek) and counts strategic investors such as Foxconn, Horizon Ventures, Alibaba, Qualcomm and Sequoia. The founder previously said the company expected to turn profitable in 2023 and has discussed a likely U.S. IPO, though management was later more circumspect about listing timing. Kneron develops low-power edge AI semiconductors and proprietary software that enable on-device data processing using neural processing units (NPUs), reducing reliance on cloud compute. Its chips target applications including manufacturing, smart homes, smartphones, robotics, surveillance, payments and autonomous driving. The company is extending into the smart car industry and has partnerships with Foxconn and Otus (a supplier for Honda and Toyota). Kneron agreed to acquire Vatics, an image signal processing provider from Delta Electronics’ Vivotek subsidiary, for $10 million in cash; Vatics executives will join Kneron to lead its surveillance and security camera division. The acquisition and NPUs are intended to let Kneron offer full-stack AI solutions and accelerate go-to-market for surveillance and automotive products. Kneron is headquartered in San Diego with a development force in Taipei. The company has attracted strategic investors including Foxconn, Qualcomm, Sequoia Capital, Alibaba and Horizons Ventures and recently received a $7 million investment from Delta Electronics, boosting total financing to over $100 million to date. Kneron develops AI chips aimed at "smart" consumer devices and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). The article identifies the company primarily by its hardware product line but provides no technical details about the chips. It reports a planned investment by MTS of about $10 million into Kneron. The piece does not outline Kneron's roadmap, commercialization plans, or financial metrics. Reader comments included in the article expressed skepticism about the technology and sourcing, and noted a lack of technical information in the coverage.

• H2U

  Participated · Equity · Jan 2022

  H2U operates a digital health ecosystem centered on its H2U pano platform and complementary apps (H2U eXpert, H2U eXamine, Everyday Health, Sports Note, iFit) to provide personalized medical checkups, nutrition, exercise prescriptions, and corporate health programs. The company leverages AI to break down data silos, track continuous health data, and recommend individualized health plans and products. H2U reports over 3,000,000 platform members and about 500 organizational customers participating in H2U pano. With a ten-year operating history and headquarters in Taipei, H2U says the new capital will strengthen R&D, AI data insights, cloud integration, and product promotion. The company plans international expansion in 2024, starting with a South Korea entry through SCL and by attending major global medical and tech events. Management aspires to become a leading Asian digital-health unicorn and anticipates pursuing an IPO by the end of the year to fund further technology development. H2U operates a Digital Health Platform that analyzes first-party data to help companies design tailored workplace health benefits. Its subscription-based workplace health ecosystem supports health management, sports scheduling, workplace health promotional events, group exercise classes, fresh food offerings, and sports science consultations. The platform aggregates data from connected products and services so users can access records and receive personalized health advice and information. H2U counts prominent advisors who provide guidance on precision medicine, biomedicine, and blockchain applications. The company is working to expand internationally and plans to bring in strategic investors from Japan and Silicon Valley in 2022 to support growth toward a digital health unicorn. Management has stated an objective to launch an overseas IPO within two years.

• SandForce

  Participated · Series C · Nov 2009

  SandForce develops SSD processors designed to enable standard NAND Flash deployment across enterprise, client and industrial computing applications. The company is based in Saratoga, CA. It closed a $25M Series D funding round to support product commercialization and technology development. Management said the funding will help bring products to market, expand customer and partner support infrastructure, and accelerate core technology development. The round was led by Canaan Partners with participation from existing investors. In conjunction with the funding, Eric Young of Canaan Partners will join SandForce’s board of directors. SandForce Inc. is a Saratoga, California-based provider of storage and networking technologies that develops SSD (Solid State Drive) processors. Its products leverage commodity flash memory to transform data storage for enterprise and mobile computing applications. The company positions its SSD processors as a way to improve storage performance and efficiency across those markets. Management said the new funding will support an expansion phase and accelerate development of new products. SandForce closed a $21M Series C to finance this stage of growth. SandForce emerged from stealth to unveil its first product family, the SF-1000 SSD Processor, aimed at enterprise applications such as data centers and personal computers. The company says the SF-1000 is more reliable and offers greater data retention than competing chips. SandForce uses flash memory across enterprise and mobile computing and positions its SSD processors as replacements for enterprise-class hard disk drives. The product launch indicates a focus on displacing HDDs in enterprise environments with flash-based storage. Financial details are limited; the company previously raised funding while in stealth. Investors named in prior rounds include DCM and Storm Ventures.

No current team members are available.