• EnCharge AI

  Participated · Series B · Feb 2025

  EnCharge is a semiconductor startup spun out from Princeton that builds analog memory chips and full‑stack AI accelerators aimed at running existing AI models at the edge (laptops, handsets, wearables). The company says its accelerators use about 20x less energy to run workloads compared with other chips on the market and has developed noise‑resilient analog designs and accompanying software. EnCharge expects to have its first chips on the market later this year and is working closely with TSMC to manufacture those devices. The startup focuses on inference rather than training and continues R&D with algorithms that could expand use cases. EnCharge has received non-dilutive support via grants from DARPA and the Department of Defense and counts strategic backers such as In-Q-Tel among its investors. The company is Santa Clara‑based and emerged from stealth in 2022 after nearly a decade of research at Princeton. EnCharge AI commercializes next-generation in-memory computing chips and full-stack AI accelerators that use switched-capacitor analog techniques to deliver large improvements in compute efficiency and density. The company says its technology targets decentralizing AI inference from data centers to phones, laptops, vehicles, and factories. EnCharge was launched in 2022 and is led by co-founder and CEO Dr. Naveen Verma, with Dr. Kailash Gopalakrishnan as CTO. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., the company is building on years of Princeton lab work and prior DoD/DARPA-funded research. Financially, EnCharge has raised $45 million to date and recently announced a $22.6 million funding round to develop next-generation full-stack AI compute solutions. It is also participating with Princeton University in a DARPA OPTIMA-supported multi-year project funded by an $18.6 million grant. EnCharge AI builds custom plug-in hardware on a standard PCIe form factor that uses in-memory computing to accelerate AI workloads for servers and network edge machines. The company’s chips are designed around capacitors rather than transistors to improve robustness against voltage and temperature fluctuations. EnCharge is developing accompanying software to enable customers to adapt different neural networks to the custom hardware and to keep the solution scalable. The firm emerged from research and DARPA- and federally funded R&D that Verma led beginning in 2017 and commercializes those test chips and architectures. EnCharge has roughly 25 employees, is based in Santa Clara, and is pre-revenue. Proceeds from the recent raise will be used for hardware and software development and to support new customer engagements.

• Encharge

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2023

  EnCharge is a Santa Clara, CA–based company that designs advanced AI chips and full‑stack solutions. Its in‑memory computing technology aims to deliver high compute efficiency and density for power-, energy-, and space‑constrained applications. The company positions its products for deployments from edge to cloud. Led by CEO Naveen Verma, Ph.D., EnCharge intends to use recent funding to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. The latest round brought the company’s total funding to $45M.

No current team members are available.