Chennai: Aheesa Digital Innovations, a fabless startup, plans volume production of its broadband chips and to ramp up commercialisation efforts after completing technical validation recently.The Chennai-based startup, founded by a group of senior industry leaders, builds semiconductor chips (system-on-chip) for telecom, networking, and communications applications, and recently tested and validated its chip design prototype during its first manufacturing run, known as a tape-out in the industry.It has plans to raise around $10 million for commercial expansion, which includes performance tuning, scaling pilot orders and volume production around the end of the first quarter of 2027. It is also developing business teams to market its chips to original equipment manufacturers, starting with a broadband chip used in the home broadband device.Sridharan Mani, founder and chief executive of the startup said they worked with several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), starting from the design stage itself and validating the chips for the custom applications of the customers. “Several OEMs worked with us during the design phase. Currently, we are working with a few customers to evaluate our solution, give that feedback and then include some of their feedback into the chip,” he said.The startup earlier raised Rs 20 crore capital from Tamil Nadu infrastructure fund management corporation’s (TNIFMC) emerging sector seed fund.When asked about competing with the global players, he said that the global broadband market is massive, with broadband penetration currently under 30% and in talks with various key players in India and Southeast Asia. He added that the company has preliminary agreements and secured commercial contracts with device makers but declined to reveal names. Mani said growing telecom manufacturing in the country, with the production-linked incentive program for the industry, is expected to drive demand.
