DEEPX is a South Korean on-device AI chip startup (NPU or Neural Processing Unit) that produces hardware and software for various AI applications in electronic devices. The company announced this week that it has raised $80 million (KRW 108.5 billion) in a Series C funding round at a valuation of $529 million (KRW 723 billion), an increase of more than eight times its Series B funding of approximately $15 million. in 2021.
The Series C funding, which brings the total raised to approximately $95 million, will move into mass production of the startup’s first products – DX-V1, DX-V3, DX-M1 and DX-H1 – for global distribution in late 2024 flow. The startup will also use the new capital to advance the development and launch of its next generation of large language model (LLM) solutions on device.
DEEPX was founded in 2018 by CEO Lokwon Kim, who previously worked at Apple, Cisco Systems, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Broadcom.
According to a recent report, the global edge AI, also called on-device AI, market size is expected to reach $107.47 billion by 2029, up from $11.98 billion in 2021. “The on-device AI market, with the exception of edge servers, requires implementing AI capabilities bypassing servers or the cloud,” Kim told TechCrunch. “The [on-device AI market] is growing due to computer vision capabilities such as facial and voice recognition, intelligent mobility, robotics, the Internet of Things and physical security systems.”
Kim said if mass production begins this year, potential customers such as end-product manufacturers could commercialize their products using DEEPX’s AI chips in 2025.
DEEPX, with around 65 employees, is not the only company that has developed AI chip solutions. The Korean team competes with Hailo, which raised a $120 million funding round last month; SiMa.ai, which also closed in April at $70 million; and Axelera, a Belgium-based AI chip startup that secured $27 million in 2022.
Kim said his company’s differentiators include cost efficiency, energy consumption efficiency and the All-in-4 AI Total Solution, a comprehensive solution for various AI applications. Its all-in-4 AI solutions include: DX-V1 and DX-V3, designed for vision systems in home appliances, surveillance camera systems, robotic vision and drones; as well as DX-M1 and DX-H1, which are designed for AI computing boxes, AI servers, smart factories and AI booster chips. According to Kim, DEEPX currently has more than 259 patents pending in the United States, China and South Korea.
“Nvidia’s GPGPU-based solutions are the most cost-effective for large language model services like ChatGPT; “The total power consumption of GPUs has reached a level that exceeds the electrical energy of an entire country,” Kim said. “This collaborative operations technology between server-level AI and large-scale on-device AI models is expected to significantly reduce energy consumption and costs compared to using data centers alone.”
The startup has no customers yet, but is working with more than 100 potential customers and strategic partners such as Hyundai Kia Motors Robotics Lab and Korean IT company POSCO DX to test DEEPX’s AI chip capabilities.
SkyLake Equity Partners, a South Korea-based technology-focused private equity firm, led the latest investment with participation from BNW Investments, a Korean private equity firm founded by the former president of Samsung LED and Samsung’s memory chip unit Electronics was founded. AJU IB and previous backer Timefolio Asset Management also participated in this round.