Boss Semiconductor Attracts 87 Billion Won in Series A Funding

Twelve institutions including Atinuminvest participate
"An exceptionally large early-stage round in the history of investments in Korean semiconductor startups"

Boss Semiconductor, a startup specializing in high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) system-on-chip (SoC) design for mobility, announced on February 23 that it has raised approximately 87 billion won in Series A funding.

Existing investors Atinuminvest, Partners Investment, STIC Ventures, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, and K& Investment Partners participated again in this round. In addition, major domestic investment institutions such as Korea Development Bank, KB Investment, Smilegate Investment, UAMCO-PI Partners, Shinyoung Securities-BSK Investment, Woori Venture Partners, HB Investment, and EN Investment Partners joined as new investors.

Founded in May 2022, Boss Semiconductor is a fabless company developing AI semiconductor solutions for autonomous driving and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI). Including its subsidiaries, the company now has more than 300 employees, and it is preparing for the tape-out (design completion) of mass-production samples of its high-performance AI accelerator "Eagle-N" in the first half of this year.

The flagship product Eagle-N is a core semiconductor that can rapidly run various AI workloads inside vehicles. Boss Semiconductor has enhanced its technological credibility by releasing demo videos on its official website that show actual models such as visual language models (VLM) and large language models (LLM) in operation. As a follow-up product, the company has "Eagle-A," an AI system semiconductor for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), in the pipeline.

Boss Semiconductor's key competitive edge lies in its differentiated human resources. Led by CEO Park Jaehong, who has more than 20 years of experience at Samsung Electronics, the core management team and senior leaders are composed of top-tier experts in design and process technologies. Based on this, the company has built a business structure that not only covers the fabless business but also concurrently carries out application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) projects.

The company is already beginning to see tangible results in the global market. In the second half of last year, it won an ASIC development project worth 24 billion won from a partner of a major Japanese automotive group, and it has been conducting joint development for more than a year with a European automaker on the Eagle-N product. Boss Semiconductor has completed technology verification with this European company and is currently engaged in detailed discussions for mass production.

Boss Semiconductor plans to invest the newly secured capital intensively in mass production of Eagle-N and in building a global sales network. In particular, it intends to target the Chinese market first, where the electric vehicle and autonomous driving markets are growing rapidly, and then expand its product lineup to robots and drones to tap into the physical AI market.

CEO Park Jaehong of Boss Semiconductor said, "This Series A funding and our collaboration with global customers have turned on a green light for the commercialization of autonomous driving semiconductors," adding, "Through aggressive expansion into global markets and continuous investment in research and development, we will lead the AI semiconductor market for mobility and solidify our position in the global automotive semiconductor market."