Tel Aviv Firm Hailo Raises $12.5M To Develop Its Deep Learning Processor

June 5, 2018 | Hailo, an Israeli company developing deep learning chips for embedded devices announced Tuesday it has raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round. The companies that invested in the firm include OurCrowd.com, Maniv Mobility, the Drive accelerator fund: Next Gear and angel investors, Hailo Chairman Zohar Zisapel and Delek Motors CEO Gil Agmon. The company says it will use the funds to further its deep learning processor, which will “deliver data center processing capacity to edge devices.” This latest round brings the company’s total funding to $16 million. Hailo’s deep learning processor, which reduces size, power, and cost when processing high-resolution sensory data, will be able to run embedded AI applications on edge devices installed in autonomous vehicles, drones, and smart home appliances, like personal assistants and smart cameras, the company said. The processor’s initial samples are expected to hit the market in 2019. Hailo hopes to hit target markets like the autonomous industry.  “The 70-year old architecture of existing processors is inadequate to meet today’s deep learning and AI processing needs. Hailo is revolutionizing the underlying architecture of the processor to boost deep learning processing by several orders of magnitude. We have completely redesigned the pillars of computer architecture – memory, control and compute – and the relations between them,” said CEO Orr Danon.

Photo (left to right): Hailo founders: CEO Orr Danon, Chief Business Development Officer Hadar Zeitlin, and CTO Avi Baum. Photographer : Eran Tayree