Artificial intelligence company XNOR.AI closed $12 million in Series A financing led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from NGP Capital, Autotech Ventures, and Catapult Ventures.
Unlike traditional AI that runs in data centers and requires network connectivity, XNOR is designed to allow deep learning models to run directly on phones, IoT devices, and low power microprocessors. The company says its technology enables AI experiences that are ten times faster, 200 percent more power efficient, and use fifteen times less memory.
XNOR plans to use the funding to accelerate development of the XNOR Developer Platform to be released in 2018. This self-serve platform will enable enterprises, device creators, and app developers—even those without AI expertise—to integrate AI models into their apps and let them run on “edge” devices such as mobile phones, drones, and IoT cameras.