SiFive, a US-based fabless provider of customised semiconductors, received $50.6m yesterday in a series C round that featured multiple corporates.
SK Telecom, part of diversified conglomerate SK Group, wearable device maker Huami and computer storage vendor Western Digital all participated in the round, co-led by spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures and Spark Capital.
SiFive provides customised semiconductors built on Risc-V, an instruction set architecture (ISA), which acts as the conduit between a computer’s software and hardware.
The Risc-V ISA is free and open to use, with SiFive generating income by customising the chips for a client’s specific needs through a service branded Freedom Platform.
Risc-V is based on research by then-PhD candidates Yunsup Lee and Andrew Waterman with Krste Asanovic, professor in University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.
SiFive and Western Digital have agreed to a multi-year licence for Freedom Platform that will involve Western Digital producing one billion Risc-V-based cores.
The series C funding will be used to commercialise additional Risc-V products. SiFive recently relocated to bigger offices in Silicon Valley to accommodate a projected three-fold increase in headcount.
SiFive’s total funding now stands at $64.1m, according to the latest press release.
Osage contributed to SiFive’s an $8.5m series B round in May 2017 led by Spark Capital, with participation from Sutter Hill Ventures, the latter of which participated as a returning investor though details about earlier funding could not be ascertained.
Naveed Sherwani, CEO of SiFive, said: “We are honoured by the continued partnership with our investors and energised by new engagements with long-time industry leaders.
“This funding from our investors and licensing agreements with strategic partners establishes a strong financial foundation which will help us to continue our trailblazing path of engineering innovations and extend our market leadership around the world.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.