Artificial intelligence-based chip startup SiMa.ai said on Wednesday it has raised $37 million in a Series B1 round from Dell Technologies founder-backed MSD Partners.
Existing partners including Fidelity Management & Research Company, Amplify Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Alter Venture Partners, +ND Capital and entrepreneur Lip-Bu Tan also participated in the round.
The latest round, an extension of $30-million Series B round SiMa.ai closed in May, takes the total capital raised by the California-headquartered firm to $187 million. In India, the startup has a team of over 100 employees in Bengaluru.
Founded in November 2018 by Krishna Rangasayee, SiMa.ai offers a machine learning (ML) system on chip platform. It helps its customers in integrating ML inference in embedded edge applications, focusing on areas such as smart vision, robotics and autonomous systems.
“This latest funding allows us to build upon our product strength and customer momentum, while scaling the company more aggressively than we originally planned and validating our ability to disrupt the embedded edge industry by bringing effortless machine learning to this multi-trillion-dollar market,” said chief executive officer and founder, Rangasayee in a release.
With the capital, the company aims to accelerate hiring and scale critical functions worldwide. Additionally, it will use the investment to drive customer success and operations globally.
“We are excited to invest in SiMa.ai and the team led by Krishna Rangasayee at this pivotal time in the wider adoption of machine learning,” said Victor Hwang, Managing Director and Co-Head, MSD Growth. “SiMa.ai is just at its beginning but has already accomplished a tremendous amount in a short period of time.”
New York-based MSD Partners, managing assets over $20 billion, deploys capital on behalf of Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell and his family, as well as other like-minded, long-term-oriented investors. The company has previously invested in companies as 6Sense, Fanatics, Flexport, Guesty, iCapital, Stripe and Verkada.
“We have participated in every round of funding since SiMa.ai’s initial round,” said Mike Dauber, General Partner, Amplify Partners. “SiMa.ai has continued to gain our vote of confidence with their incredible team-building, execution and progress. We strongly believe they will bring a new product category to the embedded edge market with their purpose-built machine learning system on chip Platform.”
