NXP ties up with IT ministry, FabCI; launches semiconductor incubation, acceleration programme

To find, facilitate, and mentor semiconductor and IP design start-ups across India, Dutch semiconductor manufacturer NXP in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Fabless Chip Design Incubator (FabCI), IIT Hyderabad, has launched the maiden 'Semiconductor Startup Incubation and Acceleration Programme'. The programme has been launched keeping in mind Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat as it will support India's vision of making the country a self-reliant nation as it creates a ready platform to support start-ups willing to design semiconductor chips in India.

"The government of India has been working towards promoting the ESDM sector to bring electronic manufacturing to India. There is also a need to build a thriving fabless design ecosystem in India. We look forward to this joint initiative of NXP Semiconductors and IIT Hyderabad for this Incubation cum Accelerator Programme that aims to find, facilitate and mentor the semiconductor and IP design startups pan India. It is a significant step as India is poised to increase its share in innovation-driven global manufacturing of mobile phones, IT hardware, automotive, industrial and medical electronics, IoT and other devices," says Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.

Also read: Govt invites proposals for setting up semiconductor FAB plants in India

"In this endeavour, Team India has created a technology startups focused framework with two key initiatives - tech startup challenge to recognise most innovative Indian Startups products aligned to NXP businesses and technologies and Technology Startup Incubator to nurture and groom young startups with complete enablement, funding and day to day guidance using a unique collaboration with Govt. of India and top Academic institutes. We are certain that the enthusiastic and budding entrepreneurs of our country will benefit immensely from this programme," says Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and India Country Manager, NXP India.

The programme will incubate up to five promising start-ups for two years in each cohort every year. The participants will include semiconductor chip design, IP design, design services startups with an IP focus and chip design tool related startups. It will be a platform for start-ups to showcase their products to the investor and business community. Also, the startup selected for the core programme will have benefits accruing up to Rs 1 crore per year per startup, EDA tool access for design and simulations, mentoring access during design and development phase, Selective IP Access for processor or interconnect aspects, foundry/packaging access, characterisation lab access, and demo day visibility with NXP.

"FabCI is a unique incubator that provides free access to highly expensive EDA tools and prototyping, apart from the basic infrastructure. With the advent of Atmanirbhar Bharat, more number of start-ups are expected to come up across the various segments of the technology and incubators like FabCI with the support of technology experts like NXP will strengthen the start-up ecosystem in the semiconductor industries," Prof BS Murty, director, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.

The local hardware designing and manufacturing of products will strengthen the core technology-driven system, which is pillar vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and in turn will boost India's economy, generate employment, and enhance its position in the global electronics industry.

Also read: No big investment in semiconductor manufacturing recently, but interest rises: Industry body