ModelNova™, an Edge AI company spun out of embedUR systems, has officially launched as an independent entity focused on making artificial intelligence practical for power-efficient edge devices.
The move comes as the industry shifts toward “physical AI,” where intelligence moves beyond the cloud into real-world systems capable of sensing, decision-making, and autonomous action.
In this evolving landscape, the challenge is no longer building AI models, but deploying them reliably on constrained, AI-accelerated hardware. ModelNova aims to address this gap by combining ready-to-use models with the tools and expertise needed to take AI from concept to large-scale production.
At the core of its strategy is an end-to-end approach to the Edge AI lifecycle. The company’s Model Zoo offers a free, open-source library of pre-trained models, datasets, and application blueprints optimized for low-power devices.
Developers can use it to quickly validate ideas on hardware ranging from Raspberry Pi to advanced AI silicon from partners such as Arm, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, Alif Semiconductor, NXP, Silicon Labs, Renesas, Synaptics, and Ceva. ModelNova is also a Leadership Partner of the EDGE AI FOUNDATION.
Complementing this is Fusion Studio, a commercial development platform designed to take models from prototype to production. Unlike conventional tools that stop at model compilation, Fusion Studio enables full system-level integration, including pipeline management, runtime environments, and silicon-specific optimization.
The company is also offering a portfolio of licensable, production-ready models. These include NovaEyeD for facial recognition in applications such as access control and personalization, alongside wireless sensing models supporting use cases like motion detection, micro-motion analysis, and automotive child presence detection using technologies such as WiFi, UWB, and mmWave.
ModelNova’s launch builds on more than two decades of embedded systems expertise from embedUR systems. Over the past 18 months, the company has gained traction, with its model zoo already supporting Edge AI ecosystems for major silicon vendors and its solutions validated across consumer, medical, and AIoT applications.
Leadership and Partner Comments
“Every technology wave lives or dies on whether developers can actually build with it, and Edge AI is at that inflection point now. The gap between a working model and a shipping product is what’s holding the industry back — ModelNova is focused on precisely that problem, and its launch is a meaningful step for the whole ecosystem,” said Michael Hurlston, President and CEO, Lumentum.
“The Alif Ensemble Series was built to bring real AI inference to power-efficient silicon, and ModelNova has been the partner proving what’s possible on it — from free Zoo models to production-ready deployments optimized for our MCUs. Their launch as an independent company gives developers an even clearer path from concept to product, and that’s exactly what this partnership has always been about,” said Reza Kazerounian, Co-Founder & President at Alif Semiconductor.
“ModelNova began as our answer to a simple question: why is it still so hard to turn a working AI model into a real product at the edge? Establishing ModelNova as an independent company lets us go after that problem with full focus — giving developers a free place to start, a platform to build on, and production-ready models they can license and ship,” said Rajesh Subramaniam, CEO & Founder of embedUR systems.
“When we started the EDGE AI FOUNDATION, we believed that if you brought silicon vendors, researchers, and developers together around shared knowledge, the market would respond with real companies solving real deployment problems. ModelNova’s launch as an independent company — spanning open-source models, professional tooling, and production licensing — is exactly the kind of maturation we hoped to see. It’s a proud moment for the whole Edge AI community,” said Pete Bernard, CEO of the EDGE AI FOUNDATION.
Availability
The ModelNova Zoo is free today, Fusion Studio is available now in beta, and NovaEyeD and other production-ready models are available for licensing. Explore the full offering at modelnova.com.
