Rapid Silicon raises $15M Series A to ship an FPGA backed by open-source design software

FPGA startup building the Gemini 16nm FPGA and Raptor, an electronic design automation suite for FPGA application design

Commercial open-source FPGA design software, with a matching low-end FPGA, can win low- to mid-range customers against incumbents such as Intel

$15M Series A led by Cambium Capital, with a $15M extension expected at an $80M pre-money valuation

Rapid Silicon launched in 2021 with CEO and co-founder Naveed Sherwani, formerly a GM at Intel and CEO of semiconductor startup SiFive. Its goal was to promote and implement open-source technology for the low- to mid-range FPGA market.

In January 2023 it announced the Series A, saying the money would fund its product portfolio and the launch of its low-end FPGA. It had two products in development: Raptor, EDA software, and Gemini, a 16-nanometre FPGA with a dual-core Arm processor, memory controller and ethernet. Sherwani expected Gemini on the market by the end of Q1 2023, and meanwhile it earned $2-3M a year from licensing its IP.

FPGAs had become a hot area, especially in AI and machine learning

The market was estimated at $14B by 2028 from $6B in 2021 (one estimate)

Open-source software reduces support load and time to market for customers

IP licensing already brought in $2-3M a year while hardware was being finished

Rapid Silicon pairs hardware with open-source tooling to lower support load for customers, but its main competitors, including Intel, are far larger.

As of 2023-01-12 Rapid Silicon had a $15M Series A, an expected $15M extension at an $80M pre-money valuation, and a first FPGA, Gemini, due by the end of Q1 2023. The extension was unconfirmed in the TechCrunch article.