Mindgrove Technologies, a Chennai-based fabless semiconductor design startup has raised $8 million in its Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Rocketship.vc, Speciale Invest and additional participation from Mela Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Whiteboard Capital, Nishchay Goel and new investor Anshul Goel. This new funding will help the company to accelerate the commercial production of its Secure IoT chip, workforce expansion and strengthen its engineering capabilities. The company’s leading product Secure IoT is India’s first high-performance microcontroller System-on-Chip (SoC) developed at 28 nm technology. It is designed for use in a wide range of smart devices including smartwatches, utility meters, printers and point-of-sale (PoS) machines. These devices are rapidly becoming connected to the internet and require secure and reliable chips.
Secure IoT was launched in May 2024 and the company expects to launch it in the market by mid-2025. This marks a significant achievement in India’s growing semiconductor industry, which has been pushing for more homegrown solutions to meet domestic demand. Along with the Series A funding, Mindgrove Technologies has also received ₹15 crore under the Indian Government’s Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme. This funding supports the development of a new chip called Vision SoC, designed for high-performance edge computing and vision processing. Vision SoC will be used in applications such as CCTV cameras, dashcams, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and smart TVs, further expanding the company’s product range and market reach.
Mindgrove Technologies was founded by Shashwath T R and Sharan Srinivas J and headquartered at the IIT Madras Research Park. The company designs reliable and scalable chips that serves to the needs of both Indian and global markets. To support its growing business, Mindgrove plans to expand its team from 40 to 100 employees within the next two years. The company aims to hire in areas like engineering, sales and marketing to expand its products and serve more customers. With strong backing from investors and government support, Mindgrove Technologies is well-positioned to play a crucial role in India’s semiconductor revolution. Its innovative solutions are helping reduce the country’s dependence on foreign chip imports, contributing to a more self-reliant and competitive tech industry.
