Chip software automation startup Embedd raises $2.7M

Physical AI chip infrastructure startup Embedd Ltd. has raised $2.7 million in a pre-seed funding round to address a critical bottleneck in the robotics industry. The round was led by Seedcamp and included participation from several venture capital firms, including Cocoa, Connect Ventures, 2100 Ventures, Vesna Capital, U.ventures, Underline Ventures, Common Magic, and Roosh Ventures.

Embedd claims that nearly $19 billion has been invested in physical AI technology this year, encompassing autonomous vehicles, connected medical devices, and humanoid robots. However, these intelligent machines often face challenges in effectively communicating with dozens of embedded semiconductors. This issue stems from the lack of a common language among chips, forcing engineers to manually write complex code to enable communication.

The company's founders, Michael Lazarenko, Maxim Gorinov, and Valentin Gololobov, are all Ukrainian technology entrepreneurs. They established Embedd after encountering chip shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of their home country. These experiences led them to recognize a significant bottleneck that would only worsen as physical AI becomes more widespread.

To tackle this problem, Embedd's team developed a platform that automates the creation of code necessary for chips to communicate with one another. Rather than engineers spending hours reading documentation and writing code, Embedd creates a digital twin of the hardware and employs AI agents to use this twin to generate the required code rapidly.

Lazarenko stated that the company's platform enables customers to ship production-ready software for semiconductors up to six times faster than before. The London-based startup has already secured partnerships with chipmakers, such as Microchip Technology Inc., to help developers build on their silicon. Rodger Richey, vice president of development systems at Microchip Technology, emphasized that the key issue for chipmakers is now ease of use, rather than raw chip speed.

With the funding from this round, Embedd plans to expand its platform's capabilities and assist more semiconductor makers in entering emerging software ecosystems.