New Delhi — Indian semiconductor startups have raised about $206 million across 51 funding rounds since 2022, with investors increasingly concentrating capital on companies that are closer to commercialization, according to a new report.
The report from venture capital firm Speciale Invest said semiconductor startups raised $61.9 million in the first half of 2026, equal to about 81% of the $76.6 million raised during all of 2025.
While the number of funding rounds has declined, the amount of capital deployed has increased. Funding rounds fell from 16 in 2024 to 13 in 2025 and seven in the first half of 2026.
The trend suggests investors are placing larger bets on startups that have advanced further through product development, validation and commercialization rather than spreading capital across a broader pool of early-stage companies.
Seven recent Series A rounds accounted for $73.7 million, representing roughly one-third of all semiconductor startup funding raised in India since 2022, according to the report. For many companies, the transition from seed funding to Series A has taken between seven and 22 months.
The report also highlighted growing overlap between government semiconductor initiatives and private venture investment.
Of the 24 chip-design projects supported through India’s Design Linked Incentive program, 14 later raised institutional venture capital. Those companies collectively secured $100.8 million across their first and second funding rounds.
“The next test is whether this momentum can carry companies from design and validation into scaled products, repeat customers and globally relevant businesses,” the report said.
Arjun Rao, Co-founder and General Partner at Speciale Invest, said the next generation of semiconductor companies in India is likely to extend well beyond chip design.
“We see significant room to build across equipment and materials, design IP and EDA, analog and RF, advanced packaging and AI infrastructure,” Rao said.
India’s semiconductor startup ecosystem is also becoming more diverse. While an earlier wave of companies focused largely on digital chips, RF, RISC-V and edge systems-on-chip, newer startups are working in areas including photonics, power and compound semiconductors, fabrication equipment and metrology, AI data center silicon, AI-assisted semiconductor design and analog AI inference. (Source: IANS)
