Israeli chip startup RAAAM Memory Technologies has raised $17.5 million to support the development of low-power semiconductors.

The Series A round was led by chipmaker NXP Semiconductors and saw participation from IAG Capital Partners, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, LiFTT, Alumni Ventures, in addition to existing investors J-Ventures, Silicon Catalyst Ventures, and Serpentine Ventures.

It brings the total raised by RAAAM to more than $24 million, a figure which includes an accelerator grant from the European Innovation Council.

Founded in 2021 by Robert Giterman, Andreas Burg, Adam Teman, and Professor Alexander Fish, RAAAM is looking to solve the AI memory bottleneck with its Gain-Cell RAM (GCRAM) technology, an approach it claims offers up to 10X power reduction over high-density SRAM.

RAAAM said its technology is fully compatible with the standard CMOS fabrication process and can be used by chip companies as a drop-in replacement for SRAM. It requires no additional process steps, ultimately enabling increased on-chip memory capacity whilst using the same die size, thus reducing power and cost.

In a statement, the startup said it has already demonstrated its GCRAM technology on silicon process nodes ranging from 16nm – 180nm, and is now collaborating with NXP. Headquartered in Israel, RAAAM currently employs 22 people and also has an R&D center in Switzerland.

“This oversubscribed funding round with high-profile strategic and financial investors is another sign of confidence in our company and our revolutionary technology,” said Giterman, CEO and co-founder of RAAAM. “Our solution promises to resolve the memory bottleneck in leading-edge AI chips through significant memory density improvement and lower power consumption compared to SRAM”.