Chip startup optoML raises $1.8 million from Bluehill.VC, A99; completes 12 nm tapeout

Fabless semiconductor startup optoML has raised $1.8 million from a round led by Bluehill.VC and A99. The investment is subject to regulatory approval.

The startup said the funds will be used to scale up hiring and begin work on its next-generation of chips, following the tapeout of its 12 nm wafers with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). Tapeout is the stage at which a chip design is finalised, verified, and sent to the foundry for manufacturing.

Headquartered in Singapore with its R&D centre in Bengaluru, optoML is building an analog-in-memory compute (AiMC) system-on-chip (SoC) platform integrated with optical interconnects.


The company claims its patented in-memory compute architecture can deliver up to 50 times higher energy efficiency compared to traditional digital accelerators, targeting AI workloads across edge, enterprise, and data centre environments.

optoML was founded by Saravana Maruthamuthu, who has 17 years of semiconductor and systems experience across Intel, Qualcomm, Continental, and Isar Aerospace, and has worked on advanced nodes, analog mixed signal, and production grade platforms.

Maruthamuthu, who’s also the CEO, said the fundraise will help test chips, build commercial viability, expedite customer deployments, and scale production. "Bluehill and a99's conviction will put us on a path to clear productisation, qualification, and real world impact, turning efficient AI compute into deployable systems."

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kaynes Semiconductor to support assembly and testing once the wafers arrive from TSMC, accelerating the path from silicon validation to scalable manufacturing.

“Semiconductors are an area where we are seeing strong progress in India’s deeptech ecosystem,” said Manu Iyer, general partner, Bluehill.VC. “optoML sits at the intersection of two irreversible shifts in compute — analog in-memory architectures and optical interconnects. As AI workloads scale, energy efficiency, latency, and bandwidth are becoming first-order constraints.”

Bluehill.VC, a Chennai-based firm with a corpus of Rs 350 crore, typically invests $750,000 to $2 million in its first tranche, with follow-on investments of up to $3 million.

The fundraise comes amid rising investor interest in India’s semicon ecosystem. Recently, chip startup C2i Semiconductors raised $15 million in a round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures, to build power management solutions for AI data centres and cloud infrastructure.