Quietly laying the groundwork over the past months, a Bengaluru-based startup has now entered the spotlight with fresh funding and big ambitions in artificial intelligence hardware. Agrani Labs has announced its exit from stealth mode after raising $8 million in a seed funding round.
The funding was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from angel investors. Agrani Labs said it is focused on developing advanced AI semiconductor technology from India for global markets.
The startup was founded by former Intel and AMD executives Dheemanth Nagaraj, Ashok Jagannathan, Srikanth Nimmagadda, and Rajesh Vivekanandham. Agrani Labs is building a high-performance AI GPU designed specifically for data centre workloads. The company is entering a rapidly growing market driven by rising demand for AI compute power, a space currently controlled by a limited number of global players.
The newly raised capital will be used to expand engineering teams and accelerate product development. Agrani Labs aims to deliver globally competitive AI compute solutions that are designed and built in India.
Unlike companies that focus only on hardware, Agrani Labs is developing a full-stack AI compute platform. This includes GPU architecture and chip design, along with a proprietary software stack covering compilers, libraries, system software, and AI frameworks. The goal is to support end-to-end deployment for customers.
The company has also appointed Vinod Dham as a founding advisor. Dham is widely known as the “Father of the Pentium” and played a key role in shaping Intel’s processor roadmap. He has also been actively involved in India’s semiconductor ecosystem.
Agrani Labs said it has completed early architecture and product definition work and has built initial versions of both its hardware and software stack. To move faster, the startup is working with academic institutions, semiconductor partners, government research organisations, and wider software ecosystems.
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