C2i Semiconductors has raised $15 million in a new funding round, in a major drive into the latest deep-tech ecosystem in India. It was led by Peak XV Partners, and this is a strong investment in the indigenous chip design industry. Notable investors also took part in the round, such as the Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures, which have raised the total amount of capital the company has been able to raise so far to approximately $19 million.
Developing a power delivery platform
C2i Semiconductors, which stands for Control, Conversion, and Intelligence, has been devoting its innovation to an important challenge in the contemporary technology environment: AI data center and cloud infrastructure power management. The power to propel high-performance GPUs has been increasing exponentially as the world needs AI compute power. The company leadership said that the current traditional methods of power delivery have a 15-20% energy loss as electricity is reduced to high voltage grids down to millivolts needed by processors.
The startup is working on what it refers to as a grid-to-core or grid-to-GPU power delivery platform. The ability to consider power conversion, power control, and packaging as one module instead of a sequence of unrelated parts, C2i asserts it can gain 8-10% efficiency and enhance total GPU performance by approximately 3%. When an efficiency increase of 10% is achieved by large-scale operators of data centers, the savings of almost 1 kW per server tray can be achieved, which can cause significant cumulative savings and enhanced return on investment.
Strategic roadmap and market opportunity
The startup was founded in 2024 by industry veterans, such as former executives of Texas Instruments, Ram Anant, Vikram Gakhar, Preetam Tadeparthy, and Dattatreya Suryanarayana, who are rapidly transitioning out of the design phase into physical silicon. The new capital will play a critical role in funding the new technical milestones and international growth of the company.
C2i is already planning to fabricate its initial product in April and a second in July. The chips would be produced in global-class plants, such as Tower Semiconductor in Israel and GlobalFoundries in Singapore or Dallas.
The startup will have physical presence in the United States to remain near key decision-makers and hyperscale customers. It also plans to develop an applications and systems engineering team in Taiwan to serve Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and win design.
The investment is made when power reaches the hard ceiling of AI scaling. Industry experts estimate that capital spending on AI infrastructure may reach one trillion dollars by 2030, and the power-related semiconductor market is a potential $ 50–$75 billion market. In this, the targeted C2i grid-to-core segment is estimated to be worth between $5 and $8 billion.
Rajan Anandan, the Managing Director of Peak XV Partners, pointed out that power is no longer merely infrastructure but a significant bottleneck. He observed that the system-level strategy of C2i had the potential to realize billions of dollars in savings through increased longevity of GPUs and minimizing the prevailing omnipresent cost of energy. The involvement of TDK Ventures, the venture arm of a global magnetic component leader, is another indication that C2i is capable of negotiating the intricate hardware and supply-chain demands of the semiconductor business.
Conclusion
The successful round of C2i Semiconductors at $15 million highlights an evolving phase of the Indian semiconductor sector, which is now being likened to the start-up levels of the e-commerce boom. The startup is addressing a seemingly unglamorous but fundamental issue of power efficiency, which puts it in a position to be a critical piece of infrastructure in the global AI race.
When the company launches its initial silicon testing with hyperscalers and data center operators in mid-2026, its plug-and-play solutions can be considered the future of sustainable and high-performance AI implementations globally.
Read the full article here