Indian engineers assembling microcontrollers, challenging global low-cost chip market.
India’s burgeoning semiconductor industry is seeing a new contender emerge to challenge China’s long-standing dominance in the low-cost chip market. IndieSemiC, a Surat-based fabless semiconductor company, is strategically positioning itself to capture a significant share of India’s price-sensitive market by developing affordable, general-purpose microcontrollers and Systems-on-Chip (SoCs).
The company, founded by Nikul Shah, has initially focused on building RF modules using chipsets from Nordic Semiconductor and Semtech. This strategy has allowed IndieSemiC to deploy approximately 60,000 units in the past year, with plans to scale to a million units this year. These modules are designed for applications like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and LoRa connectivity.
IndieSemiC’s core ambition, however, lies in designing its own microcontrollers. The company is developing a general-purpose microcontroller with two variants: one for non-IoT applications and another integrating IoT capabilities, specifically LoRa connectivity for long-range communication. These chips are expected to operate at 200 MHz and support lightweight machine learning workloads, enabling edge devices for AI applications.
Shah emphasizes a product-centric approach, stating, “We are a fabless company and fundamentally, a product company, not a services business. Our focus is on building and selling products that we develop in-house.” This strategy aims to differentiate IndieSemiC from competitors by offering system-level integration, customization, and localized support, rather than competing solely on price.
The company’s vertical integration strategy also includes developing specialized SoCs, such as the ISC-S2-PZ for CCTV applications in partnership with Prizor Viztech. IndieSemiC sees a significant opportunity in offering an affordable alternative to the low-cost chips, often priced between 10 to 20 cents, that dominate the market, largely imported from China.
IndieSemiC follows a fabless model, outsourcing fabrication to foundries like TSMC and GlobalFoundries, while handling design and product development in-house. Packaging and assembly are being managed through an agreement with Kaynes Technology at its Sanand-based OSAT facility, with testing conducted within India. The company is also leveraging Indian intellectual property, including the VEGA processor architecture developed by C-DAC.
Bootstrapped thus far, IndieSemiC is preparing to raise its first institutional round, a Series A fundraise, to support chip tape-out, expand its design team, and accelerate production. The company is also applying for funding support under the IT ministry’s DLI 2.0 scheme. IndieSemiC has set an ambitious target of shipping 5 to 10 million units across modules and SoCs by 2030.
The Indian semiconductor ecosystem is rapidly evolving, supported by government policies like the Chips to Start-up and DLI schemes. However, challenges such as high development costs, IP licensing, and long design cycles remain bottlenecks. Startups like IndieSemiC are focusing on specific, localized use cases as a more practical entry point into the market.
IndieSemiC faces competition from domestic players like Mindgrove Technologies, CalligoTech, Chipspirit, and Vervesemi, all developing specialized ICs and RISC-V CPUs. If successful, IndieSemiC could provide a crucial proof point for Indian semiconductor startups moving beyond design services to owning silicon products, potentially challenging China’s established position in the global low-cost chip market.
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