EnCharge AI Secures $22.6 Million in Funding

EnCharge AI Inc., a Santa Clara-based startup specializing in in-memory AI, has raised $22.6 million in its latest funding round, bringing its total capital raised since its founding in 2022 to approximately $45 million. The company is focused on advancing charge-based in-memory AI computing.

The investment round saw new participation from VentureTech Alliance, the venture capital arm of foundry TSMC, alongside existing investors such as RTX Ventures, ACVC Partners, Anzu Partners, S5V, Alley Corp, Scout, and Silicon Catalyst Angels.

The funds will be used to expand EnCharge’s team, which currently consists of 50 employees across the US, Canada, and Germany. The company also plans to develop AI chips and full-stack solutions based on those chips.

EnCharge was co-founded in March 2022 by Kailash Gopalakrishnan, Naveen Verma, and Echere Iroaga to commercialize R&D initially conducted at Princeton University. Gopalakrishnan, who serves as the chief technology officer, was formerly an IBM Fellow leading AI hardware and software programs. Verma, the CEO, is a former professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton. Iroaga, the chief operating officer, brings 25 years of semiconductor experience, having held senior management positions at Macom and Qualcomm.

The company’s in-memory computing technology, which was developed under DARPA and Department of Defense-funded programs, has been refined over the past six years. EnCharge claims its technology offers significantly higher computational efficiency and density than traditional GPUs, TPUs, or even beyond-digital accelerators such as those based on optical or analog computing.

EnCharge reports that it has several generations of test chips, with one achieving 150TOPS/W for 8-bit AI compute.