Romanian startup CyberSwarm raises $50M for brain-inspired chips
What's the deal? CyberSwarm, a Romanian startup building neuromorphic processors — chips that mimic how biological brains work — has raised $50M in a Series A round from Falanga InvestDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a private equity fund based in Prague and Bratislava.
The company was founded by Mihai Raneti in Ploiești and has been in development for a decade. It holds over 30 patents and operates out of Bucharest and Ploiești. CyberSwarm previously received $1M from prominent American investor Tim Draper.
Its core technology is a memristor-based hardware architecture that stores and processes information simultaneously — the way biological neurons do. Rather than using traditional binary computing, CyberSwarm takes an analogue approach, running AI algorithms directly on the chip without needing internet or cloud connectivity. The company calls this "brain on a chip."
Why now? Demand for edge AI — processing that happens locally on a device rather than in the cloud — is surging across industries like autonomous vehicles, robotics, defence, and healthcare. Neuromorphic computing promises faster, more energy-efficient inference for exactly these use cases.
The new funding will accelerate CyberSwarm's architectural development, expand its engineering teams, strengthen industrial partnerships, and support first commercial deployments in automotive, aerospace, defence, health, and robotics.
What could go wrong? Neuromorphic computing remains a nascent field with no dominant commercial standard. CyberSwarm faces competition from well-funded incumbents like Intel (which shuttered its Loihi-focused neuromorphic lab before reviving efforts) and deep-pocketed startups elsewhere. Turning 30 patents and a decade of R&D into revenue-generating products is a different challenge altogether.
Manufacturing novel chip architectures at scale is expensive and fraught with supply-chain risk — especially for a startup based outside established semiconductor hubs.
The signal: Falanga Invest, a Central European investment fund focused on computing, AI, medtech, and logistics, is placing a significant bet on neuromorphic hardware at a time when investor appetite for AI infrastructure beyond conventional GPUs is intensifying. A $50M Series A for a Romanian chipmaker underscores how deep-tech capital is increasingly flowing into Central and Eastern Europe — a region historically overlooked for frontier semiconductor work.
Read more: start-up.ro
