CEO, Syntiant
WHY: OC’s next big semiconductor company. Aims to make it extremely easy to add voice control to any Internet of Things connected device. Chips are expected to help drive advances in “always on” products including smartphones, microphones, security cameras, drones, sensors, laptops and wearables.
RECENT: $25M Series B in 2018 from who’s who of tech VCs. Low-power “wake word” offering, which brings the Alexa electronic assistant back into action, received Amazon qualification this summer.
QUOTABLE: “We don’t have any direct competition at these power levels. We open up an entirely different type of application,” he said in August.
