Zurich, Switzerland: Mosaic SoC has raised $3.8 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Founderful, with participation from Kick Foundation.
The funding will support Mosaic SoC’s mission to deliver real-time spatial intelligence to energy-constrained consumer devices through its next-generation perception chips.
Mosaic SoC is developing integrated circuits designed to enable devices to see and understand their environment in real time while operating within minimal power budgets.
These chips are aimed at applications across wearables and mobile devices, including augmented reality glasses and smartphone cameras.
The company is addressing a critical limitation in current hardware: while devices are increasingly equipped with cameras and sensors, they lack the ability to interpret this data efficiently.
Real-time perception today typically relies on power-intensive application processors and GPUs, making it impractical for compact, battery-powered devices.
Mosaic SoC is focused on solving this challenge with dedicated perception chips tailored for spatial awareness.
“Spatial intelligence shouldn’t require an application-class processor and a GPU,” said Alfio Di Mauro. “We built Mosaic SoC to deliver real-time perception at a fraction of the energy, so battery-powered devices can understand their environment without compromising form factor.”
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Mosaic SoC Chips Process Visual and Positional Sensor Data to Enable Devices to Build Real-Time Understanding of Surroundings
This includes capabilities such as mapping environments, identifying objects, and enabling features like recalling where an item was last seen or generating floor plans dynamically.
In smartphones, Mosaic SoC can function as a co-processor for front cameras, supporting always-on tracking and classification with significantly lower power consumption.
For Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs), Mosaic SoC offers a differentiated approach. Instead of adding complexity, the chip integrates a baseline layer of spatial intelligence along with a full application layer that manufacturers can build upon. This reduces the need for extensive in-house engineering to develop perception capabilities from scratch.
Founded by Moritz Scherer and Alfio Di Mauro, both PhDs from ETH Zurich, Mosaic SoC leverages deep expertise in system-on-chip architecture.
The founders identified a growing gap between the demand for edge intelligence and the limitations of existing hardware solutions.
In its first year of operations, Mosaic SoC has already generated revenue through non-recurring engineering (NRE) contracts with ODM partners. As its chips enter the market, the company expects a transition toward scalable revenues driven by product sales.
A key differentiator for Mosaic SoC lies in its architecture. Unlike conventional designs based on single- or dual-core ARM systems, the company employs a proprietary multi-core architecture with eight or more cores.
This design is optimized to maximize performance per watt, enabling always-on perception in power-constrained environments.
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Beyond hardware, Mosaic SoC is also building AI deployment toolchains and compilers that allow firmware developers to fully utilize its architecture.
The company aims to evolve into a platform provider where applications are developed, deployed, and optimized around its silicon.
Commenting on the investment, Antonia Albert said, “The next billion smart devices will see and understand the world around them. Mosaic SoC’s product is the chip that makes that possible at scale.
Moritz and Alfio have the architecture, the platform vision, and the team to make it happen. We are proud to back them with Founderful on their journey to define the spatial computing era.”
Looking ahead, Mosaic SoC aims to become the foundational layer for spatial intelligence at the edge, enabling always-on perception across wearables and mobile devices without the trade-offs of power consumption and system complexity.
