This Indian startup has raised $4.15 million to revolutionize chip design with GenAI

Bengaluru-based deeptech startup Maieutic Semiconductor has raised $4.15 million in a seed funding round co-led by Endiya Partners and Exfinity Venture Partners. The funding round marks a significant milestone in Maieutic’s mission to reimagine chip design by introducing generative AI to design and development workflows.

Founded by serial entrepreneurs and industry veterans, including Gireesh Rajendran (CEO), Ashish Lachhwani (CBO), Rakesh Kumar (CPO), and Krishna Sankar (CTO), Maieutic aims to address what it describes as one of the most complex and underserved challenges in the semiconductor design.

The startup's GenAI–first platform is designed to accelerate early-stage chip design, domain expert review process, and enable intelligent analysis of design trade-offs, all of which are typically time-consuming and resource-intensive. With this new round of funding, it plans to expand its engineering team and significantly improve time to market.

“Semiconductor design has remained largely untouched by modern productivity enhancements,” said Gireesh Rajendran, CEO and Co-founder of Maieutic Semiconductor.

“At Maieutic, we’re combining decades of deep analog and semiconductor experience with cutting-edge AI techniques to create a copilot that reduces the design cycle from weeks to days, spots inconsistencies without expert intervention, and brings intelligence to every trade-off. We’re thrilled to have raised this round of funding and are incredibly grateful to have visionary partners like Endiya Partners and Exfinity Venture Partners on board, who not only believe in our mission but are actively supporting us as we build for the future of chip design.”

Gireesh was previously the CEO and co-founder of Steradian Semiconductors, a radar startup that saw a successful acquisition.

“Maieutic is solving a real problem in the semiconductor design space, an area that has long resisted automation despite its growing complexity. Analog workflows in particular have remained largely manual and dependent on domain expertise and time-intensive iteration. Maieutic’s AI-first approach has the potential to change that. The founding team has both deep technical expertise and years of experience in taking products to market,” said Sateesh Andra, Managing Partner at Endiya Partners.

Chinnu Senthilkumar, Managing Partner at Exfinity Venture Partners, said, “The Maieutic team brings an exceptional blend of deep technical expertise, global semiconductor experience, and a clear vision for the future of analog design. Having spent more than a decade in Analog/Mixed-Signal design early in my career, I truly appreciate the complexity and magnitude of the problem. What truly excites me is their bold approach to applying GenAI to an area that has seen very little disruption over the decades. 

“As the demand for intelligent, high-performance chips continues to grow globally, Maieutic is uniquely positioned to lead this paradigm shift. We are proud to support them on this journey and confident that they will build a category-defining company from India.” Exfinity is an active investor in deep-tech and semiconductor startups, with successful exits such as Kinara.ai, an edge AI semiconductor company,” Senthilkumar added.