Irvine-based chip startup Syntiant Corp. attracted some of tech’s biggest names in its second funding round.
“We’re building this to be Orange County’s next very successful semiconductor company,” Chief Executive Kurt Busch said. “We have the market traction with our samples. We have the management team that has built large semiconductor businesses in the past and we have some of the greatest companies backing us.”
Microsoft Corp.’s venture capital arm, M12, led the $25 million Series B round. Other backers include:
• Amazon Alexa Fund, a $200 million investment pool established in 2015 by retail giant Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) that fuels voice technology innovation.
• Applied Ventures LLC, the VC arm of Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT), a global leader in materials engineering used to produce virtually every new chip in the world. The fund invests up to $50 million annually and has more than 75 companies in 13 countries.
• Intel Capital, the VC arm of one of the world’s largest chipmakers, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC).
• Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, the VC arm of Motorola Solutions Inc. that has 17 portfolio companies in its global fund.
• Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, the VC arm of Bosch Group, a Germany-based conglomerate with annual revenue exceeding $85 billion across the mobility, industrial, consumer goods, and energy and building sectors.
As part of the round, Syntiant expanded its board to five members with the appointments of Samir Kumar, managing director of M12, and Bret Johnsen, chief financial officer of Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.
Experienced Executives
Syntiant’s executive team, established last year by former executives at Broadcom, Mindspeed Technologies Inc. and Lantronix Inc., is developing a new generation of chips that utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance applications.
“That’s the premise of the company: to come out with a new custom-designed processor,” said Busch, who was chief executive for four years at Irvine-based networking products maker Lantronix until he resigned in 2015.
The new company is zeroing in on what it calls neural decision processors—chips billed as enabling battery-powered smart devices to perform computations faster with 50 times more energy efficiency than traditional central processing, graphic and digital signal processors.
“We approached companies that recognized the need for this type of a breakthrough,” Busch said.
The investors each jumped aboard for specific applications: Amazon’s Alexa voice control; Microsoft’s cloud services; Applied Materials’ processing; Motorola’s public safety devices and connectivity; and Bosch’s product development.
The funding comes about a month after potential Syntiant customers began sampling its first processors for smart speakers, remote controls and mobile phones.
“We built the first chip under $5 million, which doesn’t happen very often,” Busch said. “We plan on taking it into production in the first half of 2019.”
Syntiant uses fabrication plants in Asia under a similar business model as Broadcom, Qualcomm and other fabless chipmakers.
The $25 million venture round will bring its first line of chips to production, as well as fund a hiring push.
Board Expansion
Syntiant plans to more than double its engineering team to 60 by the end of next year, a group comprised of analog and digital silicon designers, and machine learning experts.
It also plans to hire its first sales and support staff in the North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.
The company employs about 25 at its headquarters at the EvoNexus incubator at UCI Research Park.
It’s one of the largest companies at EvoNexus, and the $25 million investment is among the largest for the Irvine branch of the incubator, which also has a San Diego location.
Employment there has more than doubled since May, when the Business Journal reported Syntiant raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Intel Capital.
Busch credited EvoNexus and its developing ecosystem for helping secure investors in the Series A round and for introducing the company to half a dozen potential customers.
