Once a relatively niche topic, semiconductors have gradually become a focal point of India’s technological ambitions. While India has long been a big consumer of semiconductors, it is now positioning itself as a global manufacturing leader. Amid this surge, companies like AGNIT are exploring innovative materials like Gallium Nitride (GaN), which promises more potential than silicon.
Founded in January 2021, AGNIT Semiconductors is a vertically integrated Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor start-up, which has its roots in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru.
New in town
“When I speak of semiconductors, most people assume silicon. But Gallium Nitride is the new semiconductor material used across sectors— from power conversion, radio frequency to electronics. GaN is used wherever you want to transmit information wirelessly. It can handle higher powers and is more compact,” Hareesh Chandrasekar, CEO and Co-founder of AGNIT Semiconductors, explained.
GaN typically has higher energy efficiency in all power conversion and RF applications compared to silicon, which also leads to a greener solution at the systems level, he added.
Its use cases include radars, 5G base stations, private networks, fast chargers and jammers. A common everyday application is a fast charger equipped with a GaN-based phased power converter. “Fast chargers, like the 60-Watt charger, are moving towards GaN, which can handle higher powers and is more efficient compared to competing technologies on the market,” Chandrasekar said.
AGNIT is one of the first start-ups incubated by the Gallium Nitride Ecosystem Enabling Centre and Incubator (GEECI), IISc’s incubation arm managed by the Foundation for Science Innovation and Development, which is funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY).
Global potential
“Semiconductors are global supply and value chains. So, we can participate in areas where we see value addition and deliver compelling value. We felt GaN was that technology because it will probably be around for the next decade and more.”
AGNIT has partnered with several private defence companies in India. Last year, it signed an MoU under the iDEX programme with the Ministry of Defence to design and develop next-generation wireless transmitters for defence applications using GaN technology.
“We see a lot of uptakes for GaN in newer use cases, when otherwise, it would be silicon-based power amplifiers operating in that space… and more people are also aware of GaN products and the advantages they can bring,” he said.
In October, the company raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by 3one4 Capital and Zephyr Peacock, with participation from Lakshmi Narayanan, the former CEO of Cognizant and angel investor. This funding will primarily be used to scale up chip production over the next 12 months. Alongside, AGNIT will use the funds for the reliability testing qualification of its products, including field tests with customers.
In total, AGNIT has raised $4.87 million. The company is targeting consumer electronics and electric two-wheelers and looking to sell 1,00,000 semiconductor chips in the next 12 months.
