Key Highlights

  • DigiKey has been appointed as global distributor for the ECS-DoT-22 edge-AI system-on-chip made by EMASS.
  • The ECS-DoT-22-EVB evaluation board can now be ordered online from DigiKey and shipped to engineers worldwide.
  • As at 30 September 2026, EMASS reported 33 active customer opportunities, eight at Design-In and three testing on evaluation kits.
  • DigiKey has made an initial limited purchase of evaluation boards and holds them in its own inventory for resale.

Nanoveu Limited (ASX:NVU) has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Embedded A.I. Systems Pte Ltd, known as EMASS, has signed DigiKey as its global distributor for the ECS-DoT-22 chip. The 22-nanometre ultra-low-power edge-AI system-on-chip is aimed at always-on sensing and intelligent processing in devices such as wearables, smart locks and asset trackers. The arrangement, disclosed on 10 November 2026, makes the chip's evaluation kit available to engineers through one of the world's largest electronic components distributors.

What the Distribution Agreement Covers

DigiKey will distribute EMASS products worldwide, beginning with the ECS-DoT-22-EVB evaluation board. Engineers can order the board online and have it shipped to them without first contacting EMASS's sales team. DigiKey buys the products it distributes and holds them in its own inventory for resale, and it has made an initial limited purchase of evaluation boards from EMASS. The agreement includes standard commercial terms, including termination rights.

The distributor's network is substantial. DigiKey offers more than 17.4 million components from over 3,000 manufacturers, and serves more than one million customers each year, including engineers, designers, procurement professionals, makers and students. Listing the evaluation board alongside sensors, microcontrollers and wireless modules places the chip in the same catalogue that engineers already use during the design selection process.

How the Evaluation Stage Fits Into Customer Adoption

Nanoveu describes a sequence of stages that customers move through before a chip generates Volume revenue. A customer first assesses whether the chip suits its application, then tests it on an evaluation kit, designs it into a specific product, and finally enters production with the chip on its bill of materials. The evaluation board is the first hands-on step, allowing engineering teams to run their own sensors and AI models and measure performance and power consumption before committing to a design.

The company now markets through four channels: direct sales and application engineering, manufacturer sales representatives in North America, Europe and China, regional distribution partners in Europe and Asia, and the new DigiKey channel. The company's stated priority remains converting customers already at the design-in stage into design wins, with DigiKey intended to complement that work by bringing new potential customers into evaluation.

Customer Pipeline and Commercial Context

As at 30 September 2026, EMASS reported 33 active customer opportunities across wearables and health, smart home and security, computing and consumer devices, industrial, fleet and asset tracking, and hearables and audio. Eight customers were at the design-in stage, with engineering teams working on specific product designs, and a further three were testing the chip on evaluation kits. The company says the design-in group includes multinational technology companies with annual revenues in the billions of US dollars.

The company is careful to distinguish between pipeline activity and revenue. It states that the pipeline is a management measure of commercial activity and is not a forecast of revenue. Design-in does not always lead to a production design win, and the timing of volume orders depends on the customer's product cycle. The announcement does not disclose revenue, unit volumes or margins for the chip.

Risks and Next Steps

The distribution arrangement does not guarantee sales, and DigiKey's ability to generate Demand for the evaluation board is untested. The company has indicated that it intends to add further ECS-DoT products, including production ECS-DoT-22 devices, to the DigiKey channel once they become available. Production availability is therefore a dependency for the next stage of the commercial plan.

Nanoveu's announcement contains forward-looking information that is subject to known and unknown risks, and the company notes that actual results may differ materially from expectations. Its other businesses, including the Spinoff drone operations and EyeFly3D, are described separately and are not affected by this agreement.

Final Word

The DigiKey agreement extends the reach of the ECS-DoT-22 evaluation board from a direct sales relationship to a global self-serve channel, which the company hopes will bring more engineers into the testing stage. Whether that wider access translates into design-ins and production orders will depend on the quality of the evaluation experience, the availability of production devices and the progress of the existing design-in customers. The next indicators will be the number of customers moving from evaluation to design-in and the timing of production device releases.