Fabless semiconductor startup Morphing Machines Morphing Machines raises $2.76 million

Bengaluru-based fabless semiconductor startup Morphing Machines has raised $2.76 million in a seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, a venture capital firm specializing in deep technologies at the seed stage.

The round also saw participation other investors, including from IvyCap Ventures, Golden Sparrow, Navam Capital, CIIE Initiatives, and DeVC.

“We are thrilled to have savvy deep-tech investors who bring strategic support, networks, and go-to-market assistance to the table," said Deepak Shapeti, CEO of Morphing Machines.

Accelerating product development

Morphing Machines will use the raised capital to accelerate product development and prototyping, expand its engineering team, and bolster its go-to-market initiatives.

The startup said that these efforts aim to advance its innovative technology, which promises significant improvements in performance and efficiency for various applications.

"With this round, we will continue to drive our technology forward and prove our solution for our beachhead markets in AI-ML inferencing, data centres, and computational finance, where latency is critical,” Shapeti said.

Support from the government

The development of Morphing Machines' technology is supported by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) through the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme and the Chips2Startup (C2S) initiative.

These government programs are designed to promote the creation of indigenous technologies.

"With robust government support and initiatives like the Design Linked Incentive and Chips2Startup schemes, the focus on developing indigenous technologies is stronger than ever," stated Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest.

What does Morphing Machines do?

Founded in 2006 by Prof. SK Nandy, Dr. Ranjani Narayan, and Deepak Shapeti, Morphing Machines is known for its pioneering runtime reconfigurable dataflow processors, which offer high performance and power efficiency at a low cost.

Presently, the startup is developing REDEFINE, a many-core processor Soft IP. This processor can handle a variety of applications, including data analysis, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and high-performance computing.

By integrating functions typically managed by different types of processors, REDEFINE provides enhanced performance and energy efficiency while reducing the time and cost needed to bring products to market.

Focused on expansion

Morphing Machines was incubated at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The startup currently has a team of over 20 members and plans to expand to over 40 members to support design, verification, emulation, and tape-out processes.

"The industry is poised for significant growth, and Morphing Machines' pioneering technology and exceptional team are at the forefront of this transformation. Their advancements in accelerated computing not only promise to disrupt the market but also highlight India's emerging role as a key player in the global semiconductor landscape," Rajaram added.