Mindgrove Technologies raises $8M in Series A funding co-led by Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest

Mindgrove Technologies, a fabless semiconductor design startup, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. The investment round was co-led by rocketship.vcand Speciale Invest, with participation from Mela Ventures, existing investors Peak XV, Nishchay Goel, and Whiteboard Capital, as well as new investor Anshul Goel.

The company plans to use the capital to hire talent, fuel in-house engineering capabilities, along with scaling production and sales of its first chip. 

In May, the firm introduced Secure IoT, a high-performance commercial-grade microcontroller SoC (System-on-Chip), which is designed for electronic devices transforming into smart, connected products – such as watches, meters, locks, and access control units, along with printers and PoS machines. The chip is expected to hit the market by mid-2025.

"The recent investment 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 actively working towards meeting this need and have made progress in bringing designed-in-India chips to the market,” said Shashwath T R, CEO of Mindgrove Technologies. 

Mindgrove has also received approval for Rs 15 crore under the Government of India’s Semiconductor Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme to develop its new chip, “Vision SoC.” This chip is designed for high-performance edge computing and vision processing applications, including CCTV cameras, dashcams, video recorders, ADAS, smart TVs, among others. 

“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,” added Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest.

Mindgrove Technologies, incubated by IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation and IIT Madras Incubation Cell, is actively expanding its team across all key departments, including 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.

Founded by Shashwath TR and Sharan Srinivas J, Mindgrove Technologies designs high-performance SoCs with advanced features at competitive prices for both Indian and global markets. In early 2023, the startup raised $2.325 million in seed funding from Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), Speciale Invest, and Whiteboard Capital.