AI chip startup FuriosaAI wraps up $70 mn Series B round

South Korea-based artificial intelligence startup FuriosaAI has recently wrapped up an 80 billion won ($72.1 million) Series B round, attracting investors such as Aion Asset Management Co., Naver Corp. and DSC Investment, according to the investment banking industry on May 31.

Founded in 2017 by former Samsung Electronics researchers, FuriosaAI is an artificial intelligence semiconductor startup that makes neural processing units (NPU).

Since its inception, the startup has grown to be highly reputed in the global AI semiconductor market, one that is led by IT heavyweights such as Nvidia, Intel and Google.

In 2019, the company became the first Asia-based startup to be verified by MLPerf, the global AI semiconductor benchmark. At the time, Samsung and FuriosaAI were the only two firms invited from Korea. Among the 15 participating companies, Furiosa AI was one of only three startups.

Industry watchers say the company's superior technology played a pivotal role in securing investment from the Korean government's policy fund under the New Deal Initiative.

In the latest Series B round, Aion Asset Management made the 14 billion won investment via the New Deal fund. Over the last five years, the investment firm has invested over 700 billion won in bio, semiconductor and secondary battery firms that have strong growth potential.

Write to Jin-seong Kim at jskim1028@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.