Mindgrove Technologies, a fabless semiconductor design startup, has announced that it has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round. The round is co-led by Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest, with participation from Mela Ventures and existing investors Peak XV Partners, Nishchay Goel and Whiteboard Capital along with new participation from Anshul Goel. Using this capital investment, the company intends to expand its workforce and enhance its in-house engineering capabilities. The investment will also accelerate production and sales of its first chip.
Earlier this year, in May 2024, the company launched “Secure IoT” — India’s first commercial-grade high-performance microcontroller SoC (System-on-Chip) taped out at 28nm. Designed for electronic devices that are transforming into “smart” connected devices like watches, meters, locks and access control units, as well as for powering devices like printers and PoS machines. The chip is on schedule to reach the market by mid-2025.
In addition, Mindgrove received approval under The Government of India’s 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.
“The recent investment and the DLI scheme reaffirms confidence in our thesis and capabilities,” highlights Shashwath T R, CEO of Mindgrove Technologies. “The demand in India for high-performance SoCs with essential features for security and edge-compute is growing. We have been actively working towards meeting this need and have made progress in bringing designed-in-India chips to the market.”
The company is expanding its team across all departments – business, engineering, product and applications.
“Mindgrove Technologies represents the future of India’s technology sector, with its innovative solutions tailored for the needs of a rising India,” said Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc. “We at Rocketship are excited to be a part of this journey to reach world class technological excellence as they combine innovation, scalability, and execution to truly create a rocketship!”
“We are proud to further strengthen our partnership with Mindgrove Technologies in their mission to revolutionise the global semiconductor industry with cutting-edge, indigenously designed solutions,” said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest. “Their successfully taped-out Secure IoT SoC exemplifies innovation and cost-efficiency, addressing both domestic and global demand for high-performance microcontrollers, With the approval from MeitY under the DLI Scheme, Mindgrove is now developing a second RISC-V SoC aimed at high-performance edge computing and video processing for applications like CCTV cameras, dashcams, automotive ADAS, and smart TVs. The latest round of funding will enable them to accelerate product development and market entry, further driving India’s leadership in the global semiconductor landscape.”
The startup is incubated by 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. 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.
