Chennai: Long-time semiconductor industry executive and former chief executive of Tata Electronics (OSAT unit) Raja Manickam has founded a fabless chip startup, iVP Semi, targeting the domestic power electronics, renewable energy, electric vehicle charging and battery management markets. The company plans to open a 20,000 sq.ft common chip and module testing facility in Chennai with partnership from Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), which could be used by other semiconductor firms.It plans design and product development along with testing capabilities that will reduce its time to market.
Announcing the launch at an event on Saturday, iVP semiconductor said it has an in-house design center in Chennai and also has agreements for chip design from Taiwanese, US and Japanese players. It plans to open another design center in Bengaluru and a testing center in the southern part of the country to scale up.
The bootstrapped startup has so far raised around $5 million (about Rs 41 crore) from friends and aims to generate $70 million to $100 million in the next three years in revenues. The company aims to expand into IoT devices and industrial applications and customise its chip offerings.
Raja Manickam said the cost advantage and proximity to Indian customers will help them to tap the domestic market. “While there are a few startups that have design capabilities, many struggle to create channels, finding go-to-market and lack of funding. Eventually bought out by big companies,” he said, adding, “You cannot scale up only by selling IPs, you have to sell products globally.” He said now the design, testing facilities are aligning in the country and Indian companies emerging as an alternative for China chips makes it a good opportunity. Time is ripe for India to come up with its own brands, he said.
Raja Manickam didn’t reveal the volume target, but said roughly the company needs to sell 1.2 million units a day to reach the $100 million turnover target. iVP Semiconductor competes with global companies like ST Micro, Infineon, Onsemi, Nexperia, TI, he claimed. Earlier, in 2003, he founded Tessolve Semiconductor, a consulting firm for chip firms, later sold to Hero Electronix of The Hero Group.

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