About femtoAI
femtoAI makes an AI chip called the Sparse Processing Unit, or SPU, for devices with little power and memory. The chip skips unnecessary calculations, a technique called sparsity, and works as a small helper processor next to a device's main chip. femtoAI also provides a software kit, model compression tools and ready-made models, so device makers can add features such as voice commands and sound cleanup. The platform needs about 10 times less memory and 10 to 100 times less power.
Named customers are Marshall, which makes headphones and earbuds, NewSound, a hearing aid company, and Legato, a smart glasses company. More than 200,000 femtoAI chips are now in the market. Femtosense, Inc., which now goes by femtoAI, is based in San Bruno, California. Researchers from Stanford University's Brains in Silicon Lab founded it in 2018. Sam Fok is co-founder and CEO. Bill Hoppin is chief business officer and Jon Oslowski is chief financial officer.
Funding Rounds (SEC Form D)
| First sale | Filed with SEC | Amount sold | Investors | Avg. check | Terms | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 2026 | Sep 18, 2026amended Oct 27, 2026 | $22,550,821of $23.4M target | 23 | $980K | EquityRule 506(b) | Form D/A ↗1 earlier filing |
| Nov 26, 2024 | Nov 26, 2024 | $4,258,347of $14.5M target | 8 | $532K | DebtRule 506(b) | Form D ↗ |
| Aug 23, 2018 | Sep 11, 2018 | $1,125,000fully sold | 2 | $562K | EquityRule 506(b) | Form D ↗ |
| Total, three offerings | $27,934,168 | |||||
First sale is the date the first investor in the offering committed to invest. Companies must file Form D within 15 days of that date, so filing dates run later.
Rounds announced by femtoAI
What the company said publicly about its funding. Announced amounts can differ from Form D figures: an announcement can combine several closings, and some money is raised without a Form D.
| Announced | Round | Amount | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 28, 2022 | Series A | $8M | Fine Structure Ventures (lead), J2 Ventures, SV Pacific Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, Amino Capital, Sand Hill Angels, Gaingels | Press release ↗ TechCrunch ↗ |
Why Investors Backed femtoAI
Investors backed femtoAI because it targets a clear gap. Most capable AI runs in data centers, while small devices lack the power and memory for it. femtoAI built a chip, software and ready-made models around sparsity, a way of skipping unnecessary calculations. Its lead investor, Fine Structure Ventures, says the approach can deliver the performance of large models on constrained edge devices.
The problem it targets
Earbuds, hearing aids and appliances have little power and memory to spare. TechCrunch described the result in 2022: cost and power use, not capability, often decide where AI can run, so the most capable systems stay in the cloud. Fine Structure Ventures' view is that today's AI hardware (TPUs, GPUs and CPUs) is not optimized for edge AI, meaning AI that runs on the device itself. The gap grows as tasks and memory needs grow.
What the product does
The SPU-001 is a small AI co-processor made on a 22-nanometer process. It has 1 MB of on-chip memory, which works like 10 MB because of sparsity. It uses less than a milliwatt for speech and audio tasks. It runs common model types, such as transformers, as well as custom models. femtoAI also offers an evaluation kit, a compiler, a tool that measures power and memory savings, and ready-made models. It opened access to its developer community on October 6, 2026, after a beta program.
Progress so far
More than 200,000 SPU-001 chips are in the market, up from more than 100,000 shipped in 2025. It also announced 5X growth in the first half of 2026 but did not say what it measured. Named customers are Marshall (headphones and earbuds), NewSound (hearing aids sold on Amazon) and Legato (smart glasses). Six smart glasses makers, including Orka, have selected femtoAI for on-device AI. Embedded Computing Design listed the SPU-001 among its CES 2026 Best-in-Show winners on January 6, 2026.
Who backs it
Fine Structure Ventures led an $8 million Series A announced on September 28, 2022. J2 Ventures, SV Pacific Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, Amino Capital, Sand Hill Angels and Gaingels joined the round, according to TechCrunch. The round valued the company at $27 million, according to TechCrunch. Kleiner Perkins, Vanedge Capital and Calm Ventures are also among its investors. In December 2025 femtoAI closed a new round, without giving an amount or investors. Shyam Kamadolli of Fine Structure Ventures and Ingrid Burton, a director at Extreme Networks, sit on its board.
How the market is moving
Bessemer Venture Partners published its AI infrastructure roadmap on March 30, 2026. It wrote that inference, the running of trained AI models, now rivals training in demand for computing power and often exceeds it. It quoted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying, "the inflection point of inference has arrived." Bessemer also named femtoAI among companies building AI for on-device use in consumer products.
We wrote this summary from public statements by femtoAI and its investors. It is not investment advice.
femtoAI in the News
- CES 2026 Best-in-Show: Winners
- Add AI Acceleration with Femtosense’s Tiny Coprocessor
- The winners of the InnoVEX Pitch Contest 2025
- Sparse Artificial Intelligence MCU from Femtosense and ABOV Semiconductor Delivers AI-Based Voice Processing On-Device
- Femtosense Brings Affordable First Silicon for Audio Applications to CES 2023
Leadership Team
Executive officers and directors listed on femtoAI's Form D filed Oct 27, 2026.
Earlier filings also listed Wen Hsieh (director, last listed Sep 2018), Nick Oza (executive officer, last listed Sep 2018) and Kwabena Boahen (director, last listed Sep 2018).
Sources
- SECFemtosense, Inc. Form D, filed Sep 18, 2026
- SECFemtosense, Inc. filing history
- Companyfemto.ai, About Us (leadership, board and investors)
- Companyfemto.ai, contact page (address)
- Companyfemto.ai, EULA (legal name and address)
- Companyfemto.ai, AI accelerator page (SPU-001)
- Companyfemto.ai, press release, October 6, 2026
- Companyfemto.ai, press release, July 22, 2026
- Companyfemto.ai, press release, December 30, 2025
- Companyfemto.ai, press release, June 26, 2025 (Femtosense is now femtoAI)
- InvestorFine Structure Ventures, portfolio entry for FemtoAI (on Shyam Kamadolli's page)
- ResearchBessemer Venture Partners, AI Infrastructure Roadmap: Five frontiers for 2026
- SECExtreme Networks proxy statement, September 18, 2026 (Ingrid Burton's board seat at FemtoAI)