PROPHESEE ANNOUNCES CLOSING OF $28M FUNDING ROUND
PROPHESEE closes $28M in funding to accelerate and expand commercialization of breakthrough Event-Based machine vision solution;
Brings total investment to date to $68M
PARIS – October 28, 2019 – Prophesee SA, inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision system, today announced it has closed $28 million in funding, bringing its total funding to date to $68 million.
Led by the European Investment Bank, the round also includes staged investments from commercial backers, including Prophesee’s existing investors such as iBionext, 360 Capital Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Supernova Invest as well as undisclosed investors.
The latest round builds on the $40 million Prophesee has successfully raised since its creation, and will allow it to accelerate the industrialization of the company’s revolutionary bio-inspired technology.
The fund-raising follows Prophesee’s successful launch of the first off-the shelf and production-ready event-based sensor built on three previous generations of the architecture that the company has worked with commercial partners to develop. The funds will be used to drive the further development and commercialization of this unique Metavision® sensor and underlying neuromorphic algorithm innovations that unlock high-performance and predictive maintenance applications in industry 4.0. A next-generation version will be aimed at vision-enabled opportunities in automotive and consumer markets, including autonomous driving and ADAS as well as uses in VR/AR and IoT.
“Our event-based approach to vision sensing and processing has resonated well with our customers in the automotive, industrial and IoT sectors, and the technology continues to achieve impressive results in benchmarking and initial industrialization engagements. This latest round of financing will help us move rapidly from these successes to broader market adoption,” said Luca Verre, co-founder and CEO of Prophesee. “Our agreement with the EIB gives us a flexible and practical way to access capital we need and having the backing of our original investors further strengthens our ability to take advantage of the market opportunities we see in key sectors.”
“Prophesee continues to execute on its strategy to deliver a truly disruptive and game-changing innovation to the world of machine vision. Rooted in several years of development and strengthened with key commercial partners, the Company is now poised to achieve much wider industrial penetration. Together with the existing investors, the strong support of the EIB gives the Company the resources needed for its growth and makes us even more confident in its success,” said Bernard Gilly of iBionext, Chairman
The rise of neuromorphic engineering that helped restore sight back to the blind now gives Metavision® to machines.
The roots of Prophesee’s technology run deep into areas of significant achievements in vision, including the breakthrough research carried out by the Vision Institute (CNRS, UPMC, INSERM) on the human brain and eye during the past 20 years. Early incarnations of the Prophesee technology helped in the development of the first industry-grade silicon retina which was deployed to restore sight to the blind.
In Prophesee-patented Metavision® sensors, each pixel is independent and asynchronous. Each pixel only activates itself if it senses a change in the scene, a movement – an event. This proprietary Event-Based approach allows for major reductions of power (mW range at sensor level), latency and data processing requirements (acquires 10 to 1000x less raw data) imposed by traditional frame-based systems.
It enables sensors to achieve much higher dynamic ranges (>120dB) than commonly associated with high-speed vision. And it allows cost-efficient sensors and systems to record events that would otherwise require conventional cameras to run at 10,000 images/second and more.
About Prophesee
Prophesee (formerly Chronocam) is the inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems. The company developed a breakthrough Event-Based approach to machine vision that allows for significant reductions of power, latency and data processing requirements imposed by traditional frame-based systems.
Prophesee’s patented neuromorphic-based sensors and algorithms mimic how the human eye and brain work to dramatically improve efficiency in areas such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, IoT, security and surveillance, and AR/VR.
Prophesee, based in Paris in the startup factory of iBionext, with local offices in Grenoble, China, Japan and USA, is driven by a team of 102 visionary engineers, holds more than 50 international patents and is backed by leading international investors including iBionext, 360 Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Supernova Invest, and European Investment Bank.