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Sydney-based technology company BrainChip Holdings (ASX: BRN) is raising $37 million to support commercialisation of its world-first neuromorphic artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the development of innovative next-generation edge-AI products.
The company, which is listed on the ASX and the OTC market in the US, has already secured $35 million via a fully underwritten institutional placement and is planning to raise an additional $2 million through a share purchase plan for existing investors.
BrainChip has priced the capital raise at 17.5c per share, a 10 per cent discount to its last closing price of 19.5c on Wednesday last week, ahead of a trading halt to finalise the capital round.
The company, which was founded in 2004 by Peter Van Der Made, has become a global leader in edge-AI on-chip processing and learning, which allows the deployment of AI algorithms directly onto devices such as smartphones rather than relying on cloud-based servers.
Neuromorphic processing emulates the structure and functions of natural neurons, the building blocks of the human brain.
The company’s first-to-market neuromorphic processor, Akida, mimics the human brain to analyse essential sensor inputs at the point of acquisition, which the company says processes data “with unparalleled efficiency, precision and economy of energy”.
“This capital raise positions BrainChip to accelerate our leadership in edge AI and neuromorphic computing,” says BrainChip’s CEO Sean Hehir.
“With Akida 2.0 and our expanding product portfolio, we are unlocking new commercial opportunities in high-growth sectors and driving scalable innovation.
“Investor support enables us to execute with confidence and deliver long-term value through transformative, on-device intelligence.”
Akida is said to have multiple potential applications and end markets, including aerospace and defence, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, smart homes and smart cities, automotive applications as well as consumer devices where TENNs architecture is being applied.
TENNs provides simpler network and chip architectures for smaller, cheaper and lower-power devices.
BrainChip plans to use the capital raise to accelerate the commercialisation of the Akida 2.0 technology platform and to expedite the development of TENNs algorithms, Pico and other related edge-AI products.
The capital will also be used to fund ongoing research and development for BrainChip’s generative AI platform, designed to support Large Language Models (LLMs) at the edge, while also advancing the design and implementation of next-generation chip architecture.
BrainChild sees the latest funding round also supporting the development of “world-class reference designs to increase customer engagement and accelerate time to market for complete AI solutions”.
Shares in BrainChip Holdings were trading 1c lower at 18.5c at 12.19pm (AEDT).
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