SqueezeBeats Selected by Nekao Secures 2.5 Billion KRW Investment

AI lightweight technology startup SqueezeBits announced on the 23rd that it has raised 2.5 billion KRW in pre-Series A funding from Kakao Ventures, Samsung Next, POSCO Technology Investment, and POSTECH Holdings.

Squeeze Beats CI
Image source: Squeeze Beats

SqueezeBits is developing AI lightweight technology that helps efficiently use AI-based services. By applying lightweight technology, the memory usage and computation required during the AI model inference process can be reduced, enabling faster calculations. SqueezeBits quantizes 32-bit data to 4 bits or less while maintaining AI model performance. This is a core technology for creating faster and lighter AI models. They also possess a software engine that can efficiently compute quantized models on existing hardware. With numerous AI-based services being launched starting with ChatGPT, there is anticipation that this will reduce operational costs, which are the biggest obstacle to AI popularization.

SqueezeBits’ AI lightweight technology can be applied to various environments including mobile smartphones, laptops, edge devices, and GPU clouds. It supports various models such as image, video, voice, and natural language, broadening its application fields. They have already completed technology verification (PoC) and projects with over 20 companies including Naver and SK Telecom, showcasing lightweight technology in various AI services such as ultra-large AI models. Recently, they attracted industry attention by unveiling an on-device AI demo that runs large language models (LLM) in real-time on edge devices. They also revealed technology that runs the image generation AI Stable Diffusion model in real-time on smartphones.

Through this investment, SqueezeBits plans to secure competitiveness in lightweight technology and expand into overseas markets. They recently released the OwLite toolkit, which allows even non-experts unfamiliar with lightweight technology to easily quantize, compare, and analyze AI models. Currently, it supports NVIDIA GPUs, and they plan to expand support to various hardware including Intel, AMD, ARM, and neural processing units (NPU) from AI semiconductor startups.

Jungho Shin, an investment manager at Kakao Ventures, stated, "SqueezeBits is a team that can lead the popularization of AI applications by providing solutions across the entire AI value chain based on hardware and software expertise."

Meanwhile, since its establishment in March 2022, SqueezeBits has raised seed investments from POSTECH Holdings and Naver D2SF. It was selected for the Deep Tech TIPS program, which supports technology development funds for startups with excellent technology, securing 1.5 billion KRW in technology development funds.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.