$50m sensor technology spin out emerges

ACEINNA is developing new sensing solutions for high volume Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications such as autonomous vehicles, high performance computer systems, and smart buildings. Over the last two years, the company has achieved greater than 70% annual growth and expects this to continue in the future.

ACEINNA is a developer of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensing technology used to provide navigation and guidance to autonomous vehicles. Currently, the accurate IMU navigation systems used by the top Level four autonomous car makers cost tens of thousands of dollars each.

Dr. Yang Zhao, CEO of ACEINNA explained: “By leveraging our years of successful MEMS development and manufacturing experience, our innovative IMU technologies will enable us to provide the same technology for under $200 per unit, greatly accelerating the acceptance of autonomous vehicles worldwide. We predict that within five years, IMU-based navigation technology for autonomous vehicles will be a billion-dollar market.”

In late 2017, MEMSIC finalised a transaction that involved the sale of its consumer sensor business, including its magnetometer and accelerometer products, along with the MEMSIC brand.

The original MEMSIC ownership, management team, and board of directors created a new company, ACEINNA, based in the United States, to focus on the development of its higher growth, higher value product lines, which include inertial navigation systems, medical flow sensors, and current sensors originally developed as part of MEMSIC. In early 2018, ACEINNA finalised a startup investment of approximately $50m from the company founders and IDG Capital, China’s largest investment group which manages a near $20bn fund.

Dr. Yang Zhao, stated: “This transaction not only raised significant capital, but enabled us to now focus on the product lines where we see the best opportunity for growth and margin.”

Dr Zhao further commented that the acquiring company HC SemiTek intends to have the MEMSIC components business operate independently and is investing over a hundred million dollars to fuel its continuous growth into a major, international manufacturer of multiple MEMS sensors used in a wide range of consumer, automotive and industrial products.