Prophesee.Prophesee is the inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems
Prophesee, a neuromorphic vision provider backed by Sinovation Ventures, announced the completion of its Series C+ round of funding. The round nabs tens of millions of euros with Prosperity7 Ventures as the lead investor. Initial Series C investors include Sinovation Ventures, Xiaomi, Inno-Chip, and Hui Capital.
Nero Wang, Executive Director / Semiconductor General Manager of Sinovation Ventures, stated that the neuromorphic vision sensor is known as the generation CMOS Image Sensor (CIS), which has brought disruptive changes to the industry with its revolutionary event-based vision sensing. As a global leader in the industry, Prophesee has shown great potential in consumer electronics such as mobile phones, XR, intelligent driving, industrial automation, and other fields, and has received recognition from many global industry giants. Sinovation Ventures, as the lead Series C investor of Prophesee, witnesses the tremendous R&D progress the company has made over the past year. We believe that with the support of leading international investors, Prophesee will bring more industrial projects to fruition and make extraordinary strides.
Prophesee has raised a total of €127M since its founding in 2014, making it the EU’s most well-funded fabless semiconductor startup. The firm has raised capital from the likes of Intel Capital, Renault Group, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, and the European Investment Bank.
“We are honored to be backed by Prosperity7, a globally-focused investor that has a long-term vision and understanding of hard&core technology and semiconductor. Their support is a testament to the progress achieved and the potential that lies ahead for Prophesee. We also appreciate all the investors' recognition of Prophesee’s technological potential and business model. We believe that our cooperation will continue to deepen and achieve win-win results in the future.” commented Luca Verre, CEO and co-founder of Prophesee.
The round builds further momentum for Prophesee in accelerating the development and commercialization of its next-generation hardware and software products, as well as positioning it to address new and emerging market opportunities and further scale the company. In addition, Prophesee will further grow its business in the core eco-chains of mobile phones and consumer electronics, smart cockpits, XR, and IoT.
“Prophesee is leading the development of a very unique solution that has the potential to revolutionize and transform the way motion is captured and processed,” noted Aysar Tayeb, the Executive Managing Director at Prosperity7 Ventures. “The company has established itself as a clear leader in applying neuromorphic methods to computer vision with its revolutionary event-based Metavision® sensing and processing approach. With its fundamentally differentiated AI-driven sensor solution, its demonstrated track record with global leaders such as Sony, and its fast-growing ecosystem of more than 5,000 developers using its technology, we believe Prophesee is well-positioned to enable paradigm-shift innovation that brings new levels of safety, efficiency, and sustainability to various market segments, including smartphones, automotive, AR/VR and industrial automation.”
Aysar further emphasized, “Prophesee’s disruptive technologies and its unique team hit the criteria we are constantly searching for investing.”
Event cameras，Promote the innovation of computer vision and artificial intelligence
Prophesee’s approach is a fundamental shift from traditional camera methods and aligns directly with the increasing need for more efficient ways to capture and process the dramatic increase in the volume of video input. By utilizing neuromorphic techniques to mimic the way that human brain and eye work, Prophesee’s event-based Metavision technology significantly reduces the amount of data needed to capture information. Among the benefits of the sensor and AI technology are ultra-low latency, robustness to challenging lighting conditions, energy efficiency, and low data rate. This makes it well-suited for a broad range of applications in industrial automation, like smart cockpit, XR, IoT, mobile phones, and consumer electronics that require real-time video data analysis in conditions under demanding power consumption, size, and lighting requirements.
Prophesee has gained market traction with key partners around the world who are incorporating its technology into sophisticated vision systems for use cases in smartphones, AR/VR headsets, factory automation and maintenance, and science and health research. Its partnership with Sony has resulted in a next generation HD vision sensor that combines Sony’s CMOS image sensor technology with Prophesee’s unique event-based Metavision® sensing technology. Furthermore, it has established commercial partnerships with leading machine vision suppliers such as Lucid, Framos, Imago, and Century Arks, and its open-source model for accessing its software and development tools has enabled a fast-growing community of 5,000+ developers using the technology in new and innovative ways.
In China, Prophesee has entered into a strategic partnership with SynSense, the world’s leading brain-like intelligent chip design and R&D company, with an aim to develop ultra-low-power solutions for implementing intelligence on the edge for event-based vision applications. Moreover, Prophesee has collaborated with iCatch, a company focusing on image signal processing (ISP) technology and Camera SOC, on the development of an overall solution for event-based vision.