Press Release
February 15, 2023

Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Company Oculi Forms Strategic Partnership with GlobalFoundries

Baltimore, MD, February 15, 2023 - Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Company Oculi today announced a strategic partnership with GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF) (Nasdaq: GFS), a global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing, to manufacture OCULI SPU S12, the world's first single-chip intelligent Software-Defined Vision Sensor. This new chip will be used in smart devices and homes, industrial, IoT, automotive markets and wearables including AR/VR.

The OCULI SPU S12 is the first of 3 product lines that will disrupt and set a new standard in vision technology. It is based on GF’s 55LPx which is a feature-rich platform that supports Radio Frequency (RF), ultra-low power (ULP), embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) and high voltage BCDLite® options. This makes the platform an ideal solution for System on Chip (SoC) integration to enable more functionality, less energy consumption and smaller form factor electronic applications.

Dr. Charbel Rizk, Oculi founder and CEO commented "Oculi has solved decades-long fundamental challenges by developing a new form of vision sensor that applies selectivity to process only the most relevant information 30X faster, 1/10th the power drain, and protects privacy/data security at the sensor. Oculi technology, which features pre-processing inside the pixel that emulates the human eye, will ultimately power many smart devices. Oculi’s new vision is ideal for edge applications such as always-on gesture/face/people tracking and low-latency eye tracking, while alternative solutions are too slow, big, and power inefficient. GF is an excellent partner to enable us to quickly get our product to our customers."

In collaborating with Oculi, Mike Hogan, chief business officer at GF, recognized the synergy for both companies in this engagement. As Mike stated, "Visual AI at the edge is the growth vector to enhance the connection between the digital and physical world. Oculi's architecture and GF’s production-proven 55LPx feature-rich platform enables device makers to get to market faster while also by optimizing data usage and reducing energy consumption.”

Oculi was admitted to Silicon Catalyst, the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on semiconductor solutions, in April of 2021.

About Oculi

Oculi® is a fabless semiconductor company with an experienced team of semiconductor and vision experts, a spin-out of Johns Hopkins where the founder, Dr. Charbel Rizk, developed the underlying technology. Oculi's mission is to put the " Eye" in AI. For more information, visit www.oculi.ai

About Silicon Catalyst

Silicon Catalyst is the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating semiconductor solutions, built on a comprehensive coalition of in-kind and strategic partners to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of development. More than 800 startup companies worldwide have engaged with Silicon Catalyst and the company has admitted 90 exciting companies. With a world-class network of mentors to advise startups, Silicon Catalyst is helping new semiconductor companies address the challenges in moving from idea to realization. The incubator/accelerator supplies startups with access to design tools, silicon devices, networking, and a path to funding, banking and marketing acumen to successfully launch and grow their companies’ novel technology solutions. Over the past seven plus years, the Silicon Catalyst model has proven to dramatically accelerate a startup’s trajectory while at the same time de-risking the equation for investors. Silicon Catalyst has been named the Semiconductor Review’s 2021 Top-10 Solutions Company award winner. More information is available at www.siliconcatalyst.com and www.siliconcatalystangels.com