New Delhi: India’s semiconductor design landscape is witnessing rapid growth, with government-supported startups making notable progress in attracting private investments and advancing chip development.
One of the most prominent examples is Netrasemi, a chip design startup backed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme, which has secured Rs 107 crore in venture capital funding.
Netrasemi is currently developing semiconductor chips tailored for smart vision systems, CCTV cameras and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Welcoming the development, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that India’s robust design capabilities are now translating into commercial success.
“With India Semiconductor Mission supporting Design in India, the success of Netrasemi will encourage other Indian startups,” he noted.
Launched in 2022, the DLI Scheme aims to strengthen India’s position in chip design and innovation. Since its inception, the government has committed Rs 234 crore to 22 chip design startups, with a combined project cost of Rs 690 crore.
These companies are working on chipsets for diverse applications, including CCTV cameras, mobile networks, automotive systems, smart devices, and satellite communication.
The initiative has already catalysed strong investor interest, with these startups collectively raising over Rs 380 crore in private capital.
Notably, five of them have successfully built and tested their chip designs with global semiconductor manufacturers, signalling India’s growing relevance in the global chip design supply chain.
Mindgrove Technologies, focusing on CCTV chip design, secured Rs 85 crore, while Fermionic Design, which develops chips for satellite communication, received Rs 50 crore.
Other startups like Morphing Machines, InCore Semiconductors and BigEndian Semiconductors are also moving steadily toward production readiness.
More than 72 design firms have also gained access to sophisticated electronic design automation (EDA) tools through the programme, helping accelerate India’s ambition of becoming a semiconductor product hub.
