Mindgrove, AtumX Take Indian Semiconductor Education to Classrooms with AGNI

Indian semiconductor startup Mindgrove Technologies has partnered with STEM education company AtumX Innovations to introduce AGNI, a developer board powered by an indigenously designed chip to government school classrooms.

The initiative will begin with five government schools in Chennai, reaching nearly 1,000 students, with support from the Atal Innovation Mission. The companies said the rollout will gradually expand to schools in other cities across India.

AGNI is powered by Mindgrove’s Secure IoT System-on-Chip (SoC), a commercial-grade high-performance microcontroller designed in the country. AtumX has adapted the board for classrooms by developing a student-friendly integrated development environment (IDE) that allows students to progress from block-based programming to artificial intelligence applications.

The companies said the initiative aims to give students hands-on experience with hardware designed and built in India, reducing the dependence on imported developer boards traditionally used in engineering education.

“Every engineer in India who wanted to build with silicon has had to start on an imported chip and board. We built our developer board to change that starting point,” said Shashwath T R, Co-founder and CEO of Mindgrove Technologies, in a statement.

He added that exposing students to indigenous hardware early could strengthen India’s semiconductor ecosystem by building a pipeline of future engineers familiar with homegrown technology.

According to the companies, AGNI is not only intended for schools but also for engineers and original equipment manufacturers, allowing them to evaluate and build products using Indian-designed semiconductor technology before Mindgrove launches its future chips.

AtumX said the initiative aligns with its goal of encouraging students to become technology creators rather than consumers.

“A school student who learns on an Indian chip today will do college projects on an Indian chip, file patents on an Indian chip, and build startups on an Indian chip,” said Akash J, Co-founder and CEO of AtumX. 

Mindgrove, headquartered at the IIT Madras Research Park, designs SoCs for applications including Internet of Things, automotive systems, and computer vision. The startup is backed by investors including Peak XV Partners, Rocketship.vc, Speciale Invest, and Mela Ventures.

Founded in 2022 and incubated at Anna Incubator, Chennai, AtumX develops STEM learning products and currently works with more than 500 schools and 35 education partners across India, the US, and Australia.

The Chennai deployment marks the first phase of a broader national rollout, with the companies aiming to bring indigenous semiconductor technology into classrooms across the country in the coming months.