India-based Mindgrove Technologies: Story of Building A Multi-Million Dollar Semiconductor Startup

Chennai-based Mindgrove Technologies, a fabless semiconductor design startup. The co-founders, Shashwath TR and Sharan Srinivas Jagathrakshakan of Mindgrove Technologies, are designing innovative System-on-Chips (SoCs) in India, for the world. They are supplying scalable and dependable next-generation technology with cost effective and rich features. With the rise of the semiconductor industry in India, the founders are looking forward to developing chips with advanced features at competitive prices for the Indian and global markets.  

Meet Sharan and Shashwath

T.R. Shashwath, Co-founder of Mindgrove Technologies, is an Electronics and Communications Engineer, and Sharan Jagathrakshakan is a PhD student at IIT Madras, specializing in RISC-V based Application Domain Specific Architecture Design with a focus on Approximate Edge Vision applications.

Both being experts in computer vision, they decided to venture into developing radar systems, cameras, and scientific instruments. Their journey led them to search for a series of processors that could meet their specific needs. However, they faced a recurring challenge: the processors they found were either too expensive, didn’t meet the required specifications, or, if they did both, then they were simply unavailable.

This ongoing struggle to find the right processor inspired Sharan and Shashwath to take matters into their own hands, which eventually led them to establish their own silicon-on-chip design company.

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Origin of the Idea

The story began when in between 2012 and 2014, a group of researchers at IIT Madras, led by Professor Kamakoti, was focused on developing an indigenous microprocessor. At that time, Professor David Patterson and his team at UC Berkeley were working on a new instruction set architecture called RISC-V. With its open-source nature, RISC-V quickly gained attention, which led to the development of Shakti ecosystem of processors, which was built using his architecture design. 

The program began as an academic initiative in 2014 through the Rise Lab at IIT Madras. Shakti was developed, but as the project gained momentum, government funding was secured, and the team was tasked with creating not just a single microprocessor core, but a full class of processor cores. It was at this juncture that Sharan joined the team as a PhD student.

Around the same time, Sharan and Shashwath frequently discussed their next plans as they worked together at the same company. One day, while working on the Shakti, Sharan approached Professor Kamakoti with a question: "When can I get the Shakti C-class on silicon?" Professor Kamakoti, who was the Dean at the time, responded with a simple yet powerful answer: "It will come when you make it." This was the moment when Sharan decided to discuss the idea with Shashwath. When they initially considered the idea, they quickly realized that it wasn’t feasible due to the enormous upfront capital required. The cost of acquiring all the necessary tools and intellectual property (IP) for building a chip of the caliber they envisioned could easily run into tens of millions of dollars. So, what could they do?

IIT Madras and its present director, Professor Kamakoti, played a pivotal role in shaping their entrepreneurial journey. Both Sharan and Shashwath had strong connections to IIT Madras, with Sharan being a PhD student under the guidance of Professor Kamakoti.  Professor Kamakoti had a plan to help the boys with their vision.

Finally, in 2021, with the help of Professor Kamakoti, the duo launched Mindgrove Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Under the guidance of Professor Kamakoti, the company was incubated under the IIT Pravartak Technologies Foundation and IIT Incubations. Pravartak negotiated a licensing agreement that allowed the startup to access the required tooling and IP at a discounted rate. This arrangement significantly alleviated the large capital requirements, which enabled the duo to develop three distinct products targeting different segments of the market.

How is Mindgrove Technologies going forward?

Since its launch in 2021, Mindgrove Technologies has successfully raised two rounds of investment. The Founders, Sharan and Shashwath, believe that scaling this industry is essential.

Mindgrove Technologies has made significant progress in the semiconductor industry by launching India’s first commercial-grade high-performance microcontroller System-on-Chip (SoC). This SoC is designed for IoT devices such as smart watches, meters, and access control units. It will also power devices like printers and point of sale (PoS) machines. The chip is expected to reach the market by mid-2025.

The company is focusing on general-purpose computing products. These products can be applied across various sectors, including automotive, robotics, wearables, and smart devices. As the demand for high-performance SoCs grows in India, Mindgrove is working to meet this need by offering locally designed chips for both the Indian and global markets. The company is also expanding its team across all departments to support its continued growth and innovation.

The origin of an idea can come from the most unexpected places, and it's important to seize it when the moment arrives. The key to turning it into a life-changing opportunity is to act swiftly and dedicate yourself to it at the right time.

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