Chips to Startup (C2S) — EDA Tools, IP, Fabrication Support and Project Funding for Chip Design
Building the design workforce — and the startups it seeds
Chips to Startup, launched in 2022, is MeitY's programme to train specialised VLSI and embedded-systems engineers and to promote design of ASICs, SoCs, FPGAs and reusable IP cores across Indian institutions. Its centre of gravity is academic — 305 institutions and more than a lakh student enrolments by January 2026 — but it deliberately pulls startups in: 95 were engaged by that date, and 56 student-designed chips had been fabricated.
For a startup, C2S is a way into the infrastructure — the EDA tool grid and IP repository at C-DAC's ChipIN centre, multi-project-wafer fabrication support, prototyping and mentoring — and into project money through collaborative work with an academic partner or by winning a grand challenge or hackathon. It is not a grant you apply for on your own.
What a participating startup gets
- •Access to industry-standard EDA tools and an IP repository through ChipIN
- •Multi-project-wafer and fabrication support for prototypes
- •Project-based funding under an approved C2S project with an academic partner
- •Mentoring from C2S faculty and C-DAC engineers
- •A route to the trained design manpower the programme produces
MeitY and C-DAC
MeitY approves projects on the recommendation of its programme committee; C-DAC administers, runs ChipIN and evaluates challenge entries. Academic lead institutions hold the project and bring in startups as collaborators.
How a startup can participate
- •Startup or MSME in semiconductor design — SoC, IP core, system design
- •Participation through an academia-industry collaborative project with an eligible institution (IITs, NITs, IIITs, universities, R&D bodies)
- •Or through a C2S grand challenge, hackathon or RFP for System/SoC/IP-core development
- •Indian entity; DPIIT recognition or Udyam certificate expected
What the proposal needs
- •Certificate of Incorporation, DPIIT or Udyam certificate, shareholding pattern
- •Collaboration agreement or MoU with the academic partner, with IP terms
- •Project proposal in MeitY's format: design objective, architecture, deliverables, milestones, budget
- •Team CVs and prior design experience
- •Tool and fabrication requirements for the ChipIN request
- •For challenges: entry on the C2S portal in the prescribed format
Questions founders ask about C2S
Not for project funding. A startup enters through a collaborative project led by an institution, or through a challenge or RFP. Tool access requests go through ChipIN.
As set in the collaboration agreement, within MeitY's project terms. Settle it in writing before the project starts.
C2S builds capability and prototypes; DLI incentivises commercial products. A startup often prototypes under C2S and claims DLI when it productises.
MPW runs under an approved project are supported by the programme; commercial production is outside its scope.