Trendspotting: Automotive IC Startup Funding In 2023


Consumers expect a lot from the electronics in their cars. The parts in the safety-critical systems need to be reliable for up to 18 years, able to handle a range of temperatures, voltages, and vibrations — and all the while be fault-tolerant and make zero errors. On top of those basic requirements, automakers trying to appeal to consumers are adding in more features that communicate with the... » read more

Startup Funding: June 2021


June was the month of mega-rounds for autonomous driving companies, with three pulling in well over $100M. All three are based in China, but their products range from chips to full robotaxi services. Also in the automotive space, an EV battery manufacturer raised over $2B, a solid-state lidar developer drew $300M — and those are just the largest rounds. Plus, new HPC architectures, GAA metrol... » read more

Startup Funding: February 2020


AI drew the biggest investments last month, with two AI hardware companies and one autonomous driving software startup pulling in nine-figure sums. Investors also pumped money into semiconductor manufacturing and test equipment, notably around EUV lithography and advanced packaging. AI Hardware SambaNova Systems received $250M in Series C funding for its software-defined hardware for AI, le... » read more

Over $7 Billion Raised In Mega-Rounds By 27 Firms


It was also a good month for private equity firms and venture capitalists to raise their own rounds, with the money to be invested in early-stage companies and more mature ventures. A semiconductor company led the month. Nexperia, once the Standard Products business unit of NXP Semiconductors, took in $1.5 billion of senior credit facilities. The money will go toward refinancing debt and par... » read more

August 2019 Startup Funding Report


Last month, 18 startups received private funding rounds of $100 million or more. Software and cybersecurity startups were once again popular, while automotive, mobility, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and agriculture-related technology also saw a good deal of funding. Analytics, energy, Internet of Things, and robotics startups drew new funding, too. Those 18 companies together to... » read more

July’19 Startup Funding


During the month of July, 21 technology startups took in mega-rounds of $100 million or more. Those companies together received more than $7.5 billion. On the other end of the financing spectrum, dozens of startups got seed funding or a Series A round. The dollar amounts were much smaller. Still, they are the beating heart of entrepreneurship around the world. It also was a month when som... » read more

PurpleAir: IoT Sensor Soars To 13,000 feet


Startup PurpleAir makes a living counting dust. Its consumer-level sensors measure particles of dust in air—airborne particulate matter (PM)—using laser particle counters that can count particle sizes 0.3µm up to 10µm. Add power, WiFi, the Internet, and PurpleAir pulls all the data from the devices into an online map showing extremely local air quality around the world, wherever devices a... » read more

AiMotive Is EDA For Self-Driving Cars


The team at aiMotive, a tool and IP company for OEMs making automated vehicles, isn’t waiting for smart infrastructure or 5G to make self-driving cars possible. The four-year-old startup based in Budapest, Hungary, is taking a self-sustainable route for the foreseeable future. The key to staying in business is not to compete with Waymo, Cruise or automotive companies, but to build the softwar... » read more

Uhnder: Digital Radar Chips


Radar used to be slow, clunky, and expensive. That's changing quickly as tech companies begin bringing single-chip or single-package solutions to market, setting the stage for a price/performance battle in markets ranging from automotive to robotics. Uhnder, an Austin, Texas-based startup, is the first to roll out a single-chip radar solution that it claims is roughly 100X less expensive tha... » read more

Kumu Networks: Full Duplex on One Channel


Kumu Networks is in an enviable position fitting today’s requirements for radio-frequency system designs. The Sunnyvale, Calif., startup, incorporated in 2011 and coming together the following year, has developed self-interference cancellation technology, enabling radios to send and receive signals at the same time on the same channel or on an adjacent channel. This full-duplex technology has... » read more

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