The startup intends to utilise the funding to accelerate the production and sales of its first chip, Secure IoT.
Fabless semiconductor design startup Mindgrove Technologies has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest. The funding round also witnessed participation from Mela Ventures and existing investors Peak XV Partners, Nishchay Goel and Whiteboard Capital, along with the new involvement from Anshul Goel.
The startup intends to utilise this capital investment to expand its workforce, enhance in-house engineering capabilities, and accelerate production and sales of its first chip, Secure IoT.
The startup also received approval under the semiconductor Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme amounting to ₹15 crore for developing a new chip, “Vision SoC,” meant for high-performance edge computing and vision processing applications — CCTV cameras, dashcams, video recorders, ADAS, smart TVs, and more.
Co-founder and CEO of Midngrove Technologies, Shashwath TR, said, “The recent funding and the DLI scheme reaffirms confidence in our thesis and capabilities. The demand in India for high-performance SoCs with essential features for security and edge-compute is growing. We have been working towards meeting this need and have made progress in bringing designed-in-India chips to the market.”
Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc, applauded Mindgrove’s efforts to build “solutions tailored for the needs of a rising India.” The startup is expanding its team across all departments – business, engineering, product and applications.
Earlier this year, in May 2024, the startup launched “Secure IoT” — India’s first commercial-grade high-performance microcontroller SoC (System-on-Chip) taped out at 28nm. The chip is on schedule to reach the market by mid-2025.
Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest, said, “Their successfully taped-out Secure IoT SoC exemplifies innovation and cost-efficiency, addressing both domestic and global demand for high-performance microcontrollers.”
In early 2023, Mindgrove Technologies secured $2.325 million in seed funding from Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), Speciale Invest, and Whiteboard Capital.
The startup is incubated under IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation and IIT Madras Incubation Cell. Mindgrove designs high-performance SoCs with advanced features at competitive prices for the Indian and global markets.
