Mindgrove Technologies, a Chennai-based fabless semiconductor design startup, has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest.
The round also saw participation from Mela Ventures and existing backers, including Peak XV Partners, Nishchay Goel, Whiteboard Capital, and Anshul Goel.
This follows an earlier $2.325 million seed funding round in early 2023, backed by Peak XV Partners, Speciale Invest, and Whiteboard Capital.
The new funding will be directed towards expanding the workforce, improving in-house engineering capabilities, and accelerating the production and sales of the company’s debut chip, Mindgrove stated in a press release.
Founded in 2021 by Sharan Jagathrakshakan and T.R. Shashwath, Mindgrove operates under the support of the IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation and the IIT Madras Incubation Cell. The startup focuses on designing high-performance System-on-Chips (SoCs) tailored for both Indian and global markets, combining advanced functionality with competitive pricing.
Mindgrove recently unveiled its first product, Secure IoT, a commercial-grade high-performance microcontroller SoC designed for connected smart devices, including watches, smart meters, locks, access control units, printers, and PoS machines.
The chip, manufactured at 28nm, is expected to reach the market by mid-2025.
The company has secured ₹15 crore under the Government of India’s Semiconductor Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme to develop its second chip, Vision SoC.
This high-performance SoC targets edge computing and vision processing applications for devices like CCTV cameras, dashcams, video recorders, ADAS systems, and smart TVs.