Edge computing startup secures $16.5M in early-stage funding

An early-stage AI startup has raised $16.5 million in seed and pre-seed financing and is looking to double its headcount in the next year.

Code Metal Inc., a Boston-based startup, was founded by Peter Morales and Richard Alex Showalter-Bucher, who met while working at MIT’s Lincoln Lab. Code Metal is Morales’ second startup; his first was a series of video games he sold to Orange Comet. 

Morales says Code Metal aims to create AI-powered development workflows for the edge. Whereas the cloud is a network of servers accessible via the internet, the edge is closer to the data source itself, which creates less latency and saves companies more time and money, according to Morales.

Shield Capital led the $13 million seed round, and J2 Ventures led the $3.5 million pre-seed round.

With the $16.5 million in seed financing, Morales said he is looking to grow his product management team and increase the base support engineering team already in place. 

Code Metal currently has 15 employees and, according to Morales, hopes to have 30 in eight months. The current employees bring varying degrees of experience in the field from places like MIT’s Lincoln Labs, IBM, and Intel.

AI on the edge

Edge computing is gaining more momentum in the coding world. IDC projects edge spending to reach $232 billion in 2024 and to sustain growth through 2027 to nearly $350 billion. 

Translating high-level code and distilling it into the final product currently takes time when developing a product from code to manufacturing, according to Morales. Code Metal aims to automate that process with artificial intelligence. 

“Instead of having a huge team of edge developers needed to deploy something, you can now basically use an automated pipeline to translate your code to something that will run on a device that you wouldn't otherwise be able to deploy to,” Morales said. 

The company is currently working hybrid, without a brick-and-mortar office. But Morales aims to have an office open by October and is looking for a space centrally located in Boston that can accommodate Code Metal's hardware. 

According to Morales, Code Metal is pushing its technology into the communications and edge logistics spaces, with customers from the defense, shipping and communications industries. 

“With these funds, we can double down on what we're doing and push further ahead,” Morales said.