Israel AI-based chip startup Hailo expands its Series A funding round to $21 million to accelerate global market expansion

Just six months ago we wrote about Hailo when the artificial intelligence-based chip startup raised $12.5 million to develop deep learning processor for embedded AI applications. The company has grown a lot since then. Today, Hailo announced it has expanded its Series A funding round to $21 million to expand its target markets into China and Hong Kong, complementing its existing markets in Europe, North America, Japan and Korea. The round was led by Chinese venture capital firm, Glory Ventures, with participation from existing and other new investors. In addition to the funding, the company announced the launching of Hailo-8 Fast Track program for select customers.

Founded in 2017 by former members of the elite technology unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, Hailo is a developer of a breakthrough specialized deep learning microprocessor to deliver data center performance to edge devices. Hailo develops proprietary processing architecture for deep learning on edge devices. The company aims to drive artificial intelligence to the edge. Imagine intelligent devices that are empowered with the performance of a data center class computer, operating in real time at reduced power consumption, size and cost. Hailo processors enable edge devices to go beyond handling sensors and streaming volumes of data for remote processing–they can do the processing themselves.​ Hailo’s complete re-think of computer architecture breaks the barriers of traditional paradigms, accelerating the extremely heavy computation of deep neural networks.

Hailo is also opening registration for the Hailo-8 Fast Track program to select customers and is offering these customers the opportunity to evaluate the initial samples of its high-performance, low-power and small-size Hailo-8™ deep learning processor.Program participants from various sectors will also be able to develop and prototype their own deep learning products based on the Hailo-8 processor.

Beyond the value it delivers to its strategic focus, the automotive market, Hailo’s breakthrough processor technology serves deep learning applications in a wide range of other markets including surveillance, smart home, IoT and industrial, as well as robotics, AR/VR platforms and wearables.

“The expansion of our Series A round and the addition of Glory Ventures to our investor roll boosts our ability to bring out innovative, powerful and resilient deep learning processors for edge devices, and helps us target the strategic markets of China and Hong Kong,” said Orr Danon, Hailo CEO and co-founder. “The upcoming samples of our Hailo-8 processor will help players in multiple markets overcome the daunting barriers of sufficiently low power consumption, size and cost which currently prevent them from deploying intense deep learning capabilities in their edge products.”

“We have been following the AI compute global landscape closely and found Hailo’s technology to stand out,” said Eric Yang, founding partner at Glory Ventures. “We are impressed with the Hailo team and their ability to execute. We look forward to continuing our relationship with them as AI becomes a ‘must-have’ technology in every camera-enabled device.”