Indian startup Mindgrove unveils 1st indigenous high-performance chip

NEW DELHI: As India begins its chip-making journey, fabless semiconductor startup Mindgrove Technologies, on Monday, said that it has launched the country's first commercial, high-performance SoC (system on chip).

Called ‘Secure IoT,’ the RISC-V (open-source architecture)-based chip will help domestic original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) use a homegrown chip in their devices.

The IIT Madras-incubated startup said that the chip is likely to cost 30 per cent less than other chips in the same segment.

Mindgrove designed and sent out the chip for manufacturing within eight months, which is faster than industry standards of two to three years.

“We set out to design chips that target the middle market,” said Shashwath TR, CEO and Co-founder of Mindgrove.

The chip is a high-performance microcontroller clocked at 700 MHz.

It can control devices — from smartwatches to smart city devices like connected electricity, water, and gas metres — to connected home devices and even EV battery management systems.

The country consumes over a billion chips a year and anywhere between 10 to 50 million of them can be replaced by ‘Secure IoT’.

Shashwath said that there is widespread demand for microchips worldwide, and that “we expect global buyers to be excited about a new option from India.”

The country will need semiconductors worth $90-$100 billion by FY26, largely driven by mobile manufacturing.