Israeli chipmaker Hailo secures $60 million in Series B funding for its 'deep learning processor'

Chipmaker Hailo, started by members of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite technology unit, has raised $60 million in Series B financing in a round led by its existing investors.

The round brings Hailo's total raised to $88 million, and adds a number of investors to its roster, including ABB's Technology Ventures arm, NEC and London-based VC firm Latitude Ventures.

The capital injection serves to bolster Hailo's roll-out of its 'deep learning processor', dubbed Hailo-8, and to tap new markets and industries worldwide.

Hailo says its chip banks on AI and a novel architecture to empower devices such as autonomous vehicles, smart cameras, drones and AR/VR platforms to perform sophisticated deep learning applications that previously could be run only on the cloud.

"Hailo’s technology is a leading-edge solution for high-performance, low power, and cost-effective processing at the edge," said Hiroto Sugahara, General Manager of Corporate Technology Division, NEC.

Orr Danon, co-founder and CEO of the Israeli scale-up, said: "This immense vote of confidence from our new strategic and financial investors, along with existing ones, is a testimony to our breakthrough innovation and market potential. The new funding will help us expedite the deployment of new levels of edge computing capabilities in smart devices and intelligent industries around the world, including areas such as mobility, smart cities, industrial automation, smart retail and beyond."

It's far from the only game in town, however. In fact, its Bristol, UK-based competitor Graphcore just raised $150 million at a valuation of roughly $2 billion, and another UK rival called Imagination Technologies announced a renewed IP licensing deal with Apple earlier this year.