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Global opportunities for future DLI startups
Global opportunities for future DLI startups

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Insights based on fireside chat at SemiconIndia: FutureDesign Roadshow @ IISc Bangalore

There are many opportunities arising in the semiconductor space for start-ups. Many start-ups such as Vervesemi Microelectronics, DV2JS Innovation, Ferminionic, Incore, Aura Semiconductor, Morphing Machines, Alphaics, SteradianSemi, Saankhya Labs, Sankalp Semiconductor, Terminus Circuits, Cirel Systems, Accord, Signalchip etc. form an integral part of the semiconductor landscape in India.

Various start-ups have been able to create differentiating products and services, with the need and ability to scale and have been able to do so by partnering with established companies in the ecosystem. In addition, govt. has also seeded the ecosystem through foundries, SemiconIndia initiatives etc. Companies and start-ups need to work on creating complete system solutions as opposed to thinking only horizontally. The entire semiconductor landscape has been rapidly changing with enormous growth opportunities. Start-ups are re-thinking the unique problems that the country faces and are working towards building products to solve those problems.

Automotive, Industrials, Infrastructure, Edge-IoT, Healthcare are some of the key verticals witnessing a lot of action due to their high dependence on semiconductors. For example, for micro-controllers, in the past, the focus was on ARM- based micro-controllers. However, now RISC- V micro-controllers are being explored and manufactured. Other start-ups have also mastered the image sensor technology for low light applications and have become differentiators in the landscape over time.

Some emerging start-ups have been solving unique problems in the semiconductor landscape.

  • Start-ups such as “DV2JS Innovation which designs image sensor products took advantage of the Atmanirbhar Bharat and the SemiconIndia mission and incubated their start-ups through the govt initiatives. They have been able to scale up through govt. incubation programs. Using the DLI schemes announced by the govt, they are expected to create more opportunities with respect to funding, partnerships etc. They have identified unique problems facing them and have solved them by identifying a marquee customer, who is willing to support the growth and has either the volumes or the budget to justify that problem being solved and help the start-up to scale up.
  • Other start-ups such as “Versemi” have challenges such as solving the problem of heavy capital investment, since semiconductor is a capital-intensive industry, thereby requiring a lot of capital investment. They have been able to solve this challenge by generating IPs, which attracted the customers and then created products to solve the problems of the customers. They identified very high speed and high precision converters and create niche IPs, patents, and solutions in India and US and used across various applications such as 5G, MCU, industrial sectors. These IPs solved a particular customer problem, were saleable, and have been differentiated. Getting customers early on was another challenge that needed to be solved and they solved it through partnerships with major fabs like Samsung, UMC etc. and co-created IP partnerships and got special access to their labs and fabs. These IP start-ups have resisted the struggle in the silicon process and not turned into a services and design support companies by sticking true to IP creation ad solutions finding. To move up the value chain, they solved the problem through strategic partnerships by providing complimentary skills to their partners and creating joint IPs.
  • For start-ups such as “FermionIC Design”, which is a fabless semiconductor company developing IPs and chipsets for wireline and wireless communication systems for local and global applications, have created strategic partnerships across the chip design value chain and move up the value chain to RFIC, compound semiconductors etc.

It might be imprudent to think that only established global players dominate the Indian semiconductor space, but the truth of the matter is many Indian start-ups are rapidly joining the semiconductor space and creating innovative solutions and helping India become a leader, not only in chip design, but also in chip manufacturing and across the value chain.


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Vandhna Babu
Principal Analyst - Research

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