Bengaluru-based Agrani Labs, an AI semiconductor startup founded by former Intel and AMD executives, has come out of stealth and raised $8 million in seed round led by Peak XV Partners with participation from angel investors.
The proceeds will be used to scale engineering efforts and advance product development as Agrani Labs works towards building globally competitive AI compute solutions from India.
Founded by Dheemanth Nagaraj, Ashok Jagannathan, Srikanth Nimmagadda and Rajesh Vivekanandham, Agrani Labs is working on building a high-performance AI GPU designed for data centres. The startup is entering a market that is seeing rapid growth, driven by rising demand for AI compute infrastructure, but remains dominated by a few global players.
Agrani Labs is building a full-stack AI compute platform, covering both hardware and software. Along with GPU design, the company is developing its own software stack, including compilers, libraries, system software, and AI frameworks.
Agrani Labs has also onboarded Vinod Dham, widely known as the “Father of the Pentium,” as a founding advisor. Dham previously played a key role in Intel’s processor roadmap and is closely associated with India’s semiconductor ecosystem.
The startup has already made progress on architecture and product definition and has built early versions of its hardware and software stack. Agrani Labs is also working with academic institutions, semiconductor partners, government research bodies, and software ecosystems to accelerate development.
