Mindgrove's vision chip moves closer to market with Prama MoU

Chennai: Surveillance equipment maker Prama India has agreed to integrate semiconductor startup Mindgrove Technologies' under-development vision system-on-chip (SoC) into its product portfolio when ready for commercial deployment.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday under which they will jointly work on product development, certification, and regulatory requirements.

Mindgrove announced earlier this year plans to launch its second SoC capable of processing video and making decisions on the device itself.

The company’s co-founder and chief executive, Shashwath T.R., clarified that the MoU with Prama is not for a specialized or bespoke chip. Instead, Mindgrove will incorporate the company's requirements into the vision SoC that it is already developing through hardware and software customization.

“The collaboration is about identifying the customization points that matter to them and building those into the product,” Shashwath told Mint.

Key breakthrough

The agreement marks an important milestone for Mindgrove, its first major customer engagement around the vision chip. The company said working with a customer while the chip is still under development allows both companies to align product requirements before the chip is ready, potentially shortening the time between production and commercial deployment.

“It takes customers time to develop prototypes for their own markets,” Shashwath said. “If they can do that while we're developing the chip, instead of after it's ready, we can have volumes flowing within three or four months of mass production.”

The MoU does not translate into an immediate commercial order. According to the company, the engagement will progress through product qualification before moving to a master sales agreement, where pricing, projected volumes and commercial terms will be finalized, with production orders following.

India, long lagging in the semiconductor space, has been attempting to make up for lost time. In 2021, the government announced the ₹76,000-crore India Semiconductor Mission to help create a domestic semiconductor ecosystem.

In recent years, the government has approved semiconductor projects by Tata Electronics, Micron Technology, CG Power, Kaynes Technology and others across fabrication, assembly, testing and outsourced semiconductor packaging, while the design-linked incentive (DLI) scheme has backed several Indian fabless chip startups. Most of these projects are still in early stages of development.

Mindgrove, incubated at IIT Madras and founded in 2021, is among the startups backed under the DLI scheme. The company launched its Secure IoT microcontroller earlier this year.

The timing is significant as the country's new certification rules have shut Chinese manufacturers such as Hikvision and Dahua out of the market for internet-connected CCTV cameras effectively.

The government has mandated that manufacturers disclose the origin of critical components, including SoC, and comply with stricter security certification norms. Domestic brands such as CP Plus, Qubo, Prama, Matrix and Sparsh have since expanded their market presence as manufacturers rework supply chains around non-Chinese chipsets.

Closer to commercialization

While Mindgrove did not disclose expected volumes or revenue from the Prama engagement, Shashwath said the agreement provides an important commercial reference as the company approaches other customers.

“It gives us credibility with other customers and helps us build larger volumes,” he said. “As wafer volumes increase, foundries are more willing to work with you and manufacturing costs come down, allowing us to pass those savings on to customers.”

For Mindgrove, the significance of the agreement lies less in immediate revenue than in crossing an important commercial threshold. Until now, the vision SoC had largely been a product under development. Working with a customer that intends to deploy the chip gives the company an opportunity to validate the product in real-world applications and move it towards commercial adoption.

“It is not living in the lab anymore,” Shashwath said. “It's out of the lab. We're coming into the industry.”