The initial funding round for BigEndian was spearheaded by Vertex Ventures SEA & India and involved contributions from additional key investors.
The resources will be allocated to speed up the venture’s quest to develop semiconductors domestically and on the global stage, encompassing its forthcoming system-on-chip (SoC) offering.
Established in early 2024, BigEndian is developing semiconductor-based solutions for security and surveillance. Its initial SoC is being designed for use in both large-scale enterprise and consumer surveillance cameras.
Smaller chip technology firm BigEndian Semiconductors has secured $3 Million (equivalent to INR 25.2 Crore) in its initial fundraising phase, under the guidance of Vertex Ventures SEA & India, along with backing from other key backers.
The money will help speed up BigEndian’s path to making semiconductors in India and sharing them globally, covering its next generation security system-on-chip (SoC) product.
Launched in the first half of 2024 by Sunil Kumar, Renuka Prasad, Harpreet Wadhawan, Dinesh Annayya, Kanagaraju Ponnusamy, and Jansen Cheng, BigEndian is developing semiconductor solutions for the surveillance market. Its inaugural SoC project involves designing a System on Chip for surveillance cameras targeting both commercial and consumer sectors.
Kumar, who co-founded and heads up BigEndian, shared with Inc42 that the company is partnering with the primary equipment suppliers and primary design suppliers in India to make certain that its chipsets are genuinely produced as a product that showcases ‘Make in India’ potential worldwide.
“In order to make sure our business strategy works well, we aim to work with particular companies that specialize in making electronics, designing solutions, and integrating software systems. These partners will offer complete solutions for different areas of surveillance cameras, including traffic, railways, defense, and various other areas like retail and non-retail,” explained Kumar.
The startup from Bengaluru, BigEndian, is led by a team with over a century of expertise in designing semiconductors and a history of creating numerous System-on-Cells (SoCs) from within India. The creators boast of having managed high-level teams at leading international semiconductor companies, such as ARM, Intel, and Broadcom.
In the announcement, Ben Mathias, who heads Vertex Ventures SEA & India, mentioned that the restructuring of electronics supply chains has offered an exceptional chance for India to rise to the forefront of the semiconductor industry on a global scale.
“BigEndian’s strategy for creating a security SoC matches exactly with the increasing need for sophisticated security products worldwide, and the core group is equipped with everything suggesting BigEndian’s potential to lead the international semiconductor field in the future,” Mathias remarked.
This growth comes while several Indian startups, such as Netrasemi, Sensesemi, and Cientra, along with others, are aiming to establish themselves internationally in the semiconductor industry by launching their SoCs.
According to Inc42’s findings, the semiconductor market in India is projected to expand to a value of $150 billion by 2030, increasing from $33 billion in 2023. Concurrently, the worldwide potential for the semiconductor industry is anticipated to grow to $1 trillion by 2030.