Kaspersky Lab has joined the shareholders of the startup Motif NT, a developer of neuromorphic processors that mimic the work of the human brain. Such processors are more productive and more energy efficient than conventional CPUs. The share of the "Laboratory" was 15%, the parties did not disclose the amount of the transaction. According to experts, it could amount to tens of millions of rubles.
Kaspersky Lab has acquired a 15 percent stake in the Russian company Motif Neuromorphic Technologies (Motif NT), RBC reported. This is a startup founded in 2017 and engaged in the development of neuromorphic processors.
One of the developments of Motif NT is the Altai neuromorphic processor. Such processors got their name because they are able to simulate the work of the human brain. Due to this, they work faster compared to conventional processors and consume noticeably less energy. The target industries for neuromorphic processors are machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Altai became the first such development in Russia.
Representatives of Kaspersky Lab could not answer the question about the amount of the transaction at the time of publication of the material. It is only known that a 15% stake was formed from two equal parts - the company bought 7.5% of the shares of Motif NT from two co–founders of the company, Valery Kangler and Konstantin Panchenko.
After the deal, Kangler and Panchenko ceased to be the largest shareholders of their company. Their shares decreased to 27.5%. Another 30% of Motif NT is in the hands of the startup's third co–founder, Mikhail Katomin.
Artur Shubaev, Vice President of Advance Capital, suggested in a conversation with RBC that the parties to the transaction estimated 15% in Motif NT at "several tens of millions of rubles." An unnamed representative of Kaspersky Lab stressed that the terms of the partnership also included a clause on investments in the development of Motif NT.
The goals pursued by Kaspersky Lab, acquiring a stake in the startup, remain unknown. Artur Shubaev suggests that this is due to the "demand for the development of high-tech products within the country."
The company Motif NT LLC was founded in early April 2017 in Moscow with an authorized capital of 12 thousand rubles (statistics "Contour.focus"). She is a resident of the Skolkovo Technopark and Novosibirsk Academic Park.
Until March 1, 2018, three co-founders of the startup owned equal shares of the company (33.33%). Since March 1, 2022, their shares have decreased to 30% each, and the released 10% was received by Tiltech JSC. The authorized capital of the company has grown to 15 thousand rubles.
On April 28, 2022, she resigned from the shareholders of Motif NT, after which the shares of Valery Kangler and Konstantin Panchenko increased to 35%. Mikhail Katomin retained a 30 percent share of the company.
The company has five types of activities, the main one of which is "scientific research and development in the field of natural and technical sciences other" (OKVED code 72.19). The list also includes "production of electronic equipment elements" (26.11), "production of computers and peripheral equipment" (26.20), "production of aircraft, including spacecraft, and related equipment" (30.30) and "development of computer software" (62.01).
During the five years of its existence, Motif NT has never received a net profit based on the results of the calendar year. So, in 2021, it ended with a net loss of 809 thousand rubles.
When asked about the purpose of buying a stake in Motif NT, representatives of Kaspersky Lab answered: "The acquisition of a stake in Motif NT is an organic continuation of Kaspersky Lab's long-term activities in terms of developing products and technologies using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Research work on neuromorphic solutions based on impulse neural networks has been carried out in the company since 2013. Networks of this type are used in the Kaspersky MLAD solution, where they are used to process the flow of events from industrial and information systems.
The company also added that this acquisition is "a new milestone in cooperation between the two companies, opening up prospects for the creation of integrated hardware and software neuromorphic solutions characterized by high performance and energy efficiency."
At the time of publication of the material, it was not known whether Kaspersky Lab plans to increase its share in the startup Motif NT. Meanwhile, it is known that the companies have been cooperating for at least two and a half years. They signed the corresponding agreement at the end of December 2019.
Since that moment, Motif NT has managed to release the first batch of Altai neuromorphic processors. According to Andrey Dukhvalov, director of the Advanced Technologies Department at Kaspersky Lab, the company has also developed a set of programs for working with this processor, as well as "experimentally confirmed the calculated performance and energy efficiency characteristics."
Having released a pilot batch of its neuromorphic processors, Motif NT started searching for customers interested in using them in its projects. The company is also working on the second generation of the processor, but does not specify its release dates yet.
As expected, the processor demonstrates the highest energy efficiency – according to Andrey Dukhvalov, it consumes about 1000 times less energy compared to graphics accelerators. This comparison is not accidental – currently, it is the GPU that is used to process artificial intelligence algorithms.
Andrey Dukhvalov added that Kaspersky Lab, by buying out a stake in Motif NT, will gain access to neuromorphic technologies in order to "form the global technological ecosystem of Kaspersky Lab." As part of this ecosystem, there will also be the Kaspersky operating system, which Kaspersky Lab opened access to in November 2021, the My Office software and software to combat cyber threats.
In the future, the volume of Kaspersky Lab's investments in Motif NT may increase. "Kaspersky Lab is interested in expanding access to neuromorphic technologies and does not exclude the possibility of additional investments in Motif NT," the company's representatives said.
