India’s semiconductor startups are moving past designs and prototypes toward working silicon, customer engagement and early sales. The shift was on display at SEMICON India 2026. There, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said Semicon 2.0 aims to support at least 200 chip-design companies.
More than 105 chip-design startups have already gained access to advanced electronic design automation (EDA) tools. Another 20 have secured venture-capital funding, Vaishnaw said, according to Fortune India. He called the expansion a “game changer” for building homegrown semiconductor intellectual property.
Why Tape-Out Is Now the Starting Line
Tape-out is the point when a chip design is finished and sent for manufacturing. For India’s young chip companies, it is becoming the start of the next stage rather than the finish.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the point while inaugurating the event. “But work does not stop after tape-out. On that very day, work begins on the next version. And India is doing the same,” he said.
Ashok Chandak, president of IESA and SEMI India, described what comes after. “Tape-out is no longer the end of the journey,” he said. He listed productisation, qualification, manufacturing, customer adoption and scale as the next steps, along with a move from design services toward a “Product Nation.”
How Startups Met Investors at the Show
IESA’s Startup Mitra initiative gave early-stage companies a dedicated platform, with 28 startup pods in Hall 2. It offered affordable exhibition space to companies working on fabless chip design, hardware, AI design tools, materials, chemicals and compound semiconductors.
Around 20 more startups took larger booths across Halls 1 and 2. They included CraftifAI, ThirdAI Automation, Indnix Technologies, Morphing Machines and Lightspeed Photonics.
The initiative also ran Silicon Pitch Live. It put 10 startups, chosen from more than 100 applicants, in front of more than 20 venture-capital investors. A six-member jury from Peak XV Partners, IvyCap Ventures, Applied Ventures, Lam Capital, Akti Ventures and Speciale Invest judged the round.
Elphins Technologies, Meukron Technologies, Multi Nano Sense Technologies and CraftifAI emerged as winners. Synopsys also committed $250,000 in cloud tool and compute credits for startups.
Startups Building Chips for Real Products
Five startups supported by India’s Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme had prominent places at the event: Aheesa, Vervesemi, InCore Technologies, Netrasemi and Mindgrove. Neel Gala of InCore Semiconductors, an IIT-Madras-incubated company developing RISC-V-based solutions, gave a keynote.
Akshay Agrawal and Sundeep Gupta, who lead the Startup Mitra initiative, said the goal is to connect startups with India’s growing electronics manufacturing base. “The most encouraging development is that we are beginning to see working silicon, customer engagements, product partnerships and early pathways towards commercialisation,” they said.
What Semicon 2.0 Adds for Scaling
Semicon 2.0 has a total outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. It names design, machines and materials, fabs, advanced packaging, research and development, and talent as its key pillars.
The program does not settle the harder steps on its own. Startups still have to move through manufacturing, qualification and customer adoption before their chips reach products that can scale in India and global markets.