Co-leading Syntiant’s Series C

Syntiant’s NDP (Neural Decision Processor) is a tiny fraction of the size of a penny. While running, it sips power in the same range as a AAA battery sitting idle in a drawer, running out its shelf life. With this tiny power budget of just a few microwatts, the NDP runs low latency AI inference for neural networks with over a half million parameters. And this is just the first generation, with an exciting roadmap ahead. In use cases like always-on voice commands that prompt our phones, smart speakers, and all kinds of wearables, the NDP101 achieves power performance two orders of magnitude better than the nearest alternatives available for the same user experience.

This performance is enabled by architectural innovations for near-memory computing, exploiting the inherent parallelism in neural networks, and modest precision computation (eight bits or less). However, the performance capabilities would be for naught if the NDP was difficult to program or to load trained AI models onto. But from the very beginning, Syntiant’s software philosophy has been to stick to standard deep learning software frameworks and optimization techniques with minimal added custom tooling. This has paid off by minimizing the complexity customers have to manage, and fast tracks their productivity benefit,. This is a perfect example of Syntiant’s commitment to customer-centricity. 

From the very first time we met Kurt Busch and the Syntiant leadership team, the expertise of the seasoned semiconductor industry veterans was clear. The four founders have a combined experience of 110 years designing, building, and shipping silicon. The organization they have built has also honed their embedded software and machine learning knowledge — including supporting customers less experienced with standing up their own data pipelines to build AI models. But R&D prowess alone does not guarantee commercial success. Achieving the milestone of shipping a million products to a commercial customer also requires a maniacal focus on meeting customer requirements. The grit and tenacity of the whole team — including product management, operations, sales, and customer success — both before and during the constraints of COVID is what made this possible.

Passing 1M commercial units shipped is a major milestone for any semiconductor company, but it is just the beginning for Syntiant. I’m excited to see the bevy of products that Syntiant’s customers will bring to the market over the next couple of years, powered by Syntiant’s technology. I’m thrilled to witness the pursuit of the company’s roadmap for its next generation of offerings. Together with Series C co-lead Applied Ventures, new investor Atlantic Bridge, as well as existing investors Intel Capital and Bosch, we look forward to supporting Syntiant on the exciting journey ahead. Congratulations to Kurt Busch and his entire team!

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