Morphing Machines Bags $2.76 Mn to Offer Fabless Semiconductor IP Products, Solutions

Fabless semiconductor startup Morphing Machines has secured $2.76 Mn (around INR 23 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Speciale Invest.

The round also saw participation from IvyCap Ventures, Golden Sparrow, Navam Capital, CIIE Initiatives, and DeVC.

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh capital to boost its product stack, prototyping, onboarding more talents and aid its go-to-market initiatives.

Founded in 2006 by S K Nandy, Ranjani Narayan and Deepak Shapeti, Morphing Machines was incubated under the technology entrepreneurship initiative of IISc Bangalore.

The startup claims to be supported by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme (DLI) and Chips to Startup (C2S) schemes to build a “many-core” processor, REDEFINE, which is capable of handling multiple applications like data analysis, artificial intelligence, telecommunications and high-performance computing.

With this versatile processor, the company aims to offer better performance and energy efficiency to the customers, while reducing the time and cost needed to bring products to market.

India’s semiconductor ecosystem has gained significant traction in recent times. Earlier this year, the Union Cabinet approved three semiconductor proposals from private firms, totalling INR 1.26 Lakh Cr in investment. 

Additionally, US-based semiconductor giant Micron is in the process of establishing an ATMP plant in Gujarat, with an investment exceeding INR 22,000 Cr.

India has also inked agreements with various global semiconductor manufacturing giants to set up manufacturing units domestically. Moreover, companies like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Micron, and Qualcomm are also investing in India.

According to a recent Inc42 report, the Centre is mulling to build a dedicated research and development unit under the proposed India Semiconductor Research Centre (ISRC).

In February, the Union Cabinet approved India’s first semiconductor fab to be set up by the Tata Group in partnership with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC). 

Yesterday (June 25), Tata Electronics signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with US-based Synopsys to accelerate production at the fabrication unit.

Inc42 data states that the total market opportunity for semiconductors in India is expected to cross $150 Bn by 2030. Additionally, the Indian AI semiconductor market is expected to reach $21 Mn by the end of 2030.