Epic Venture Partners has invested $8.1
million in Rain AI's mission to create energy-efficient AI
hardware using in-memory compute technology, enabling advanced AI
models to run locally on various devices.
GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 26, 2024
/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Epic Venture Partners has invested
$8.1m into Rain AI, a Sam Altman-backed startup. This was part of Rain
AI's $25 million Series A extension
round. Rain AI is an AI chip startup led by CEO William Passo, with a mission to build the
world's most cost and energy-efficient hardware for AI. GPUs have
powered the AI revolution with brute force, yet AI's demand for
energy remains insatiable. Rain AI is addressing this core problem
via its in-memory compute proprietary technology that will bring
the AI technologies of tomorrow, from personalized robotics to
putting models the size of ChatGPT on your phone.
AI is defining the Fourth Industrial
Revolution, yet we are only scratching the surface on use cases.
Rain AI's in-memory compute technology and upcoming AI accelerator
chips will continue to unlock the myriad of use cases.
William Passo, CEO of Rain AI,
expressed enthusiasm to be partnering with Epic Venture Partners,
"The AI problem is an energy problem. Being able to run the most
advanced models locally in any form factor is AI's holy grail,
including running massive LLMs, such as GPT-4, on any device.
Creating this future with abundant and scalable artificial
intelligence is critical for the coming AI revolution. We've never
seen more customer demand for our technology than we do now, and
I'm excited for what's to come in 2024 and beyond."
Rain AI's secret sauce is its unique approach that eliminates
the biggest drivers of energy usage. Unlike other AI hardware where
90% of energy is consumed by data flow, Rain AI's proprietary
digital in-memory compute technology combines both memory and
processing. And by co-designing their chips with some of the
world's best AI models, they are able to dramatically reduce the
energy consumption of AI compute compared to other solutions.
Rain AI is now in talks with major hyperscalers and
semiconductor companies to license its IP, with plans to launch its
first chip ready for customers in 2025. The use-cases will span
across multiple industries, including drones, VR goggles,
smartphones, robotics, wearables, and more.
Arthur Lee, managing partner of
Epic Venture Partners expressed his viewpoint, "AI is defining the
Fourth Industrial Revolution, yet we are only scratching the
surface on use cases across enterprise, military, and consumer
applications. There's a wide range of capabilities to explore. Rain
AI's in-memory compute technology and upcoming AI accelerator chips
will continue to unlock the myriad of use cases and allow them to
be performed faster, more efficiently, and with more privacy
protection at the Edge."
Bryan Edelstein, managing partner
of Epic Venture Partners added, "Custom AI hardware needs to evolve
as rapidly as software to fully capitalize on the continued
advancements in AI. We are excited to support Rain AI's mission in
achieving this."
Rain AI was founded in 2017 and quickly gained recognition after
being accepted into Y-Combinator in 2018. The company secured a
$5 million seed round led by
Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI,
and subsequently relocated to Silicon Valley to further its
research and development efforts. In 2022, Rain AI raised a
$25 million Series A round. Rain AI
has now raised over $40m from notable
investors including Sam Altman,
co-founder/CEO of OpenAI, which created ChatGPT; Jeff Rothschild, a founding engineer at
Facebook; Daniel Gross, co-founder
of AI startup Cue (acquired by Apple); Oliver Cameron, Founder of autonomous vehicle
startup Voyage (Acquired by Cruise); Jaan Tallinn, founding
engineer at Skype; and Scott Gray,
an AI hardware expert and early member of OpenAI's technical team.
Rain AI has also assembled a strong advisory board which includes
Dr. Jackson Hu, the former CEO &
Chairman of UMC, the 2nd largest semiconductor manufacturer in the
world; and Dr. Arijit Raychowdhury,
a leading expert of in-memory compute and Chair of the Electrical
and Computer Engineering Department at Georgia
Tech university.
Rain AI is well-positioned to disrupt the AI & semiconductor
market, which is projected to surpass $1.3
trillion by 2032.
For media inquiries or further information, please contact:
Arthur Lee or Bryan Edelstein
Epic Venture Partners
IR@epicventurepartners.com
Media Contact
Arthur Lee, Epic Venture
Partners, 1 352-256-2530, IR@epicventurepartners.com,
https://www.epicventurepartners.com
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SOURCE Epic Venture Partners