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Machine Discovery Secures £4.5 Million to Deliver AI Tools For Semiconductor Design

Published: 26th September 2023

UKI2S > News > Machine Discovery Secures £4.5 Million to Deliver AI Tools For Semiconductor Design
  • Novel machine learning technology dramatically accelerates compute-intensive simulations.
  • First core application in analog semiconductor design, delivering instant prediction capability for integrated circuit design as a companion to existing tools and simulators.
  • By 2026, Machine Discovery will cut the analog semiconductor product development cycle in half.

OXFORD, United Kingdom and SANTA CLARA, California, September 26, 2023:

Machine Discovery, a software company which uses machine learning technology to accelerate compute-intensive optimisation and simulation tasks, has secured £4.5- million of funding.

The investment round was led by BGF, one of the UK’s largest investors, and East Innovate, alongside Foresight WAE Technology Funds, UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), independently managed by Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Ltd, and Oxford Technology.

This latest round of funding will allow the company to grow its engineering and business development teams in the UK and the USA, driving commercial adoption of its technology across the semiconductor design space and in other markets.

Above, from left to right: Brett Larder, Machine Discovery co-founder and CTO, Muhammad Kasim, co-founder and CSO, Christopher Wiles, board director at Machine Discovery and investment director at Foresight Group, Janet Collyer, board chair, Sam Vinko, co-founder, Gianluca Gregori, co-founder, Bijan Kiani, CEO and Christina Sweeney, CFO and company secretary.

Bijan Kiani, CEO at Machine Discovery, said:

“Machine Discovery is pioneering the use of machine learning to reduce product development cycles in a variety of sectors.”

“We thank our partners for their continued support at a key stage of the company’s development, enabling us to expand the number of users utilising our Discovery Platform and drive forward the company’s future innovations.”

Luke Rajah, investor at BGF, said:

“With cutting-edge machine learning technology and a management team with deep industry expertise, we believe Machine Discovery is poised for rapid adoption and growth.”

“Early customer results in analog semiconductor design have shown the potential of the technology to massively accelerate the time to develop new products, which will enable leading semiconductor players to differentiate themselves in the market.”

Jason Joannou, investor at UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, said:

“The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund is a national seed investment fund that nurtures innovations emerging from the UK’s publicly funded science and knowledge labs, universities and start-ups, creating fast-growing innovative businesses by investing the crucial pre-seed funding to get these companies off the ground.”

“UKI2S has a particular interest in fusion energy, an area where Machine Discovery’s AI-driven approach to tackle intricate physics challenges and accelerate simulations looks capable of providing a significant enhancement of the fusion sector’s capabilities. We see immense potential in Machine Discovery's contribution and are thrilled to be a part of their journey.”

Machine Discovery was spun out of the University of Oxford by researchers in the physics department.

Co-founder and CSO Muhammad Kasim invented the machine learning technology that underpins the company’s work, while co-founder and CTO Brett Larder developed the first prototype of its Discovery Platform. Other co-founders including Professor Gianluca Gregori and Professor Sam Vinko are continuing with their contributions in an advisory capacity while connecting the company to the research community.

The company is led by its CEO Bijan Kiani and Non-Executive Chair Janet Collyer, who each have over 20 years of experience in the electronic design tools space.

Machine Discovery’s AI platform offers the ability to manage complex collaborative projects across large teams, with a high number of simulation runs.

From left to right: Brett Larder, Machine Discovery co-founder and CTO, Muhammad Kasim, co-founder and CSO, Sam Vinko, co-founder, Janet Collyer, board chair, Gianluca Gregori, co-founder, Bijan Kiani, CEO and Christina Sweeney, CFO and company secretary.

The platform’s novel emulation technology creates, from conventional simulation outputs, neural- network-based models for real-time prediction.

The platform’s optimisation engine uses AI algorithms for optimisation and sampling and combines simulation and neural-network model outputs to enable the exploration of a significantly larger design space at a record speed.

From left to right: Brett Larder, Machine Discovery co-founder and CTO, Muhammad Kasim, co-founder and CSO, Sam Vinko, co-founder and Gianluca Gregori, co-founder.

UKI2S

© UKI2S and Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited. All Rights Reserved. UKI2S is managed by Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited which is Authorised and Regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN 148549. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number 2500898. Registered Address: Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited, t/a Midven, 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AA.

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