Nanoveu (ASX: NVU) Adds DigiKey as Global Distributor for Edge-AI Chip

Nanoveu’s wholly owned semiconductor subsidiary EMASS has appointed DigiKey as a global distributor for its ECS-DoT-22 ultra-low-power edge-AI system-on-chip, opening a self-service channel to engineers worldwide.

The first product available through DigiKey is the ECS-DoT-22 evaluation board, which engineers use to test the chip with their own sensors and AI models before deciding whether to incorporate it into a product. DigiKey has made an initial limited purchase of the boards and will hold them in inventory for resale.

No financial value was disclosed for that initial order or the broader distribution agreement. The immediate importance of the arrangement is therefore commercial reach rather than material revenue: DigiKey serves more than one million customers annually and offers more than 17.4 million components from over 3,000 manufacturers.

The appointment gives EMASS a global online sales channel alongside its direct sales and application engineering team, manufacturer representatives in North America, Europe and China, and regional distributors in Europe and Asia.

A wider entry point to the sales pipeline

Evaluation is an early stage in the semiconductor sales process. Prospective customers first assess a chip, test it through an evaluation kit and potentially progress to a design-in, where it is incorporated into a specific product. A design win occurs when that product enters production with the chip on its bill of materials, generating volume revenue.

Making the evaluation board available through DigiKey reduces the need for engineers to contact EMASS before beginning technical work. The board is supported by EMASS’ integrated development environment, allowing customers to run software, sensors and AI models while measuring performance and power consumption.

As of September 30, 2026, EMASS had 33 active customer opportunities across wearables and health, smart home and security, consumer devices, industrial applications, fleet and asset tracking, and hearables and audio. Eight customers were at the design-in stage and another three were testing the chip using evaluation kits.

That pipeline is a measure of commercial activity rather than a revenue forecast. Nanoveu said the design-in and evaluation group includes multinational technology companies with annual revenue measured in billions of US dollars, but it did not identify them.

Focus remains on production adoption

The ECS-DoT-22 is a 22-nanometre chip designed for always-on AI processing at milliwatt-level power. EMASS is targeting battery-powered applications such as wearables, hearables, smart locks and asset trackers, where continuous sensing must operate without rapidly depleting batteries.

Nanoveu’s semiconductor technology chief executive Mark Goranson said the priority remained converting existing design-in customers into design wins. DigiKey is intended to expand the top of that funnel by letting more engineers obtain and test the chip independently.

EMASS plans to work with DigiKey to add further ECS-DoT products, including production ECS-DoT-22 devices, as they become available. For now, the agreement begins with evaluation hardware and includes standard commercial terms and termination rights.