French semiconductor startup Prophesee nabs €50 million to drive commercialisation of neuromorphic vision

Paris-based inventor of the advanced neuromorphic vision systems, Prophesee has announced the completion of its Series C round of funding with the addition of a new investment from Prosperity7 ventures. The round now totals €50 million, including backing from initial Series C investors Sinovation Ventures and Xiaomi. They join a strong group of existing international investors from North America, Europe and Japan, including Intel Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, 360 Capital, iBionext, and the European Investment Bank.

According to the company, Prophesee has become EU’s most well-funded fabless semiconductor startup, having raised a total of $127 million since its founding in 2014.

The round builds further momentum for Prophesee in accelerating the development and commercialisation of its next generation hardware and software products, as well as position it to address new and emerging market opportunities and further scale the company.

By utilising neuromorphic techniques to mimic the way that human brain and eye work, its event based Metavision technology significantly reduces the amount of data needed to capture information.

According to the startup, 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, IoT, consumer electronics that require real-time video data analysis while operating under demanding power consumption, size and lighting requirements.

Prophesee has partnered with Sony, which has resulted in a next generation HD vision sensor that combines Sony's CMOS image sensor technology with Prophesee's Metavision sensing technology.

Luca Verre, co-founder and CEO of Prophesee said: “Gaining the support of such a substantial investor as Prosperity7 adds another globally-focused backer that has a long-term vision and understanding of the requirements to achieve success with a deep tech semiconductor investment. Their support is a testament to the progress achieved and the potential that lies ahead for Prophesee.”

Aysar Tayeb, executive managing director at Prosperity7 added: “Prophesee is leading the development of a unique solution that has the potential to revolutionise and transform the way motion is captured and processed. 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.”