Will Maieutic's GenAI-Powered Workflows Usher In A New Era In Chip Design?

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman must have surprised the world when he said the upcoming GPT-5 might already be smarter than he is. Of course, this could be marketing hype. Conversely, it may indicate that GenAI is entering a new phase, where a unified system can tackle any critical challenge or create core components to drive innovation.

In India, GenAI is rarely used to build foundational blocks. Instead, many AI startups leverage readily available large language models (LLMs) to develop application layers. This new wave of startups has swept the GenAI space in the past two years, attracting most funding. Although most of these applications focus on solving conversational AI bottlenecks, a handful cater to vertical use cases such as drug discovery or advanced risk models for the BFSI sector.

Nevertheless, the potential is huge for building niche vertical applications for tech-critical domains seeking greater automation, computational power, or innovative apps for R&D. With India doubling down on deeptech development backed by an INR 1 Lakh Cr research, development and innovation scheme, it is the right time to explore whether GenAI will emerge as the next S-curve for industry verticals or if it can supercharge symbiotic relationships across sectors to drive innovation.

That breakthrough moment seems to have arrived. Led by four technology veterans, Bengaluru-based deeptech startup Maieutic Semiconductor has made a bold move to automate analog IC (integrated circuit/chip) design workflows with the help of GenAI. The venture is less than a year old and is still working on its proof of concept (PoC), a smart copilot for engineers that can simplify the painstaking tasks at the early stage of analog design.

For instance, it is expected to optimise circuit topologies (component placing and interconnections), spot anomalies, streamline reviews and intelligently analyse every trade-off to speed up the design cycle (more on its tech stack later). This will lead to enhanced precision, scalability and cost advantages, while accelerating time to market.

Maieutic is now working with three global customers, and commercial deployment is expected to begin next year. It will generate revenue through a subscription-based model for its GenAI-powered design tool. The startup recentlyraised $4.15 Mn in seed funding, co-led by Endiya Partners and Exfinity Venture Partners, known for their B2B-focussed IP-based funding. Both are backing the vision to revolutionise analog circuit designing, from the first sketch to tape-out.

But before we delve deeper, what exactly is the value proposition here?

Early in the history of chip design, all ICs were effectively analog and hand-crafted. However, most modern chips are now mixed-signal ICs, combining analog and digital components.

Here lies the crux. While digital features, including new functions and designs, operate on clear logic and benefit from sophisticated automation tools, designing the analog component is a largely manual process even now, depending on deep domain expertise of technology resources and time-consuming iterations. Yet, one cannot discard it, as these chips will always have analog shells or may require analog customisation.

In fact, analog components power almost everything, from 5G technology to automotive to IoT devices, carrying out critical tasks like signal processing and conversion. Therefore, efforts are on to reuse analog design blocks to reduce the production cycle. But the process requires careful analysis and fine-tuning to ensure that these circuits function properly within the real-world conditions for which they have been designed. Using previous designs for new use cases tends to affect their performance and limits the scope for innovation.

More importantly, the challenges inherent in analog designs are affecting both emerging companies and industry giants like Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and other leading chip designers. If Maieutic can solve these by reinventing workflows, it can be a game changer in a field notorious for complexity.

The Genesis Of Maieutic: Of Founders And Their Vision

Set up in March 2025 by a team of four — Gireesh Rajendran, Ashish Lachhwani, Rakesh Kumar, and Krishna Sankar — Maieutic has both ‘AI’ and ‘IC’ embedded in its name. One can call it a smart branding strategy or an ode to Socrates. Maieutic comes from the Greek word
or midwifery, most famously associated with the Greek philosopher’s probing questions that helped his disciples ‘give birth’ to new ideas and insights. In the modern era, this deeptech startup is determined to solve an age-old chip design problem, and GenAI is the tool it has chosen to seek solutions.

Collectively, the founding team has 10 decades of experience in chip design, AI applications and product development at Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and other global companies, alongside 70 patents. Hence, the startup looks well-positioned to solve a genuine problem — the absence of automation in design workflows.

Before setting up Maieutic, Rajendran, Lachhwani, and Kumar had launched Steradian Semiconductors in 2016, a startup that used to make chips for RADAR technology. In 2022, it was acquired by Renesas Electronics, a global semiconductor manufacturer.

Two years after the acquisition, the trio left the organisation without immediate plans for a new venture. They explored multiple ideas before settling on the ambitious goal of transforming chip design using GenAI. Maieutic was set up within the next few months.

While global giants like Cadence and Synopsys have made strides in automation, there are still significant gaps early in the design process. Maieutic aims to bridge those, transforming how chip design is approached from the ground up.

Speaking to Inc42, cofounder and chief business officer Lachhwani said traditional software development significantly boosted chip design some 30 years ago. But things have not changed much since the late 90s.

“Today, we are using the same tech tools as we did in the past. However, customer pain points have shifted due to workforce challenges. Hiring the right talent for chip designing is a primary concern now. That’s why not many semiconductor companies are coming up despite government initiatives,” he observed.

“The design cycle for smaller projects takes around 15 months, while complex ones can last up to 24 months. We want to shorten this cycle by lowering the entry barriers for design companies and allowing them to operate faster without human dependence.”

The Case For GenAI In Analog Design

GenAI and Agentic AI are transforming every industry by streamlining manual interventions, removing redundancies and accelerating workflows. The outcome: Faster rollout of products, solutions and services. Understandably, enterprises are increasingly integrating GenAI solutions to stay ahead of the curve. On the flip side, this tech adoption has not been uniform across domains, with some critical sectors still lagging.

In sectors like semiconductors, which are process-heavy and require multiple layers of technology development, the scope for GenAI to enable better automation is massive. But before we get there, let us understand the design process.

According to Lachhwani, when an engineer is given a design goal, the first step is to choose an architecture. They will then hook up wires to make circuits in a specific fashion, but these are extensive manual processes. After that, the circuit design goes through simulations to emulate the behaviour of the final chips. Finally, another review is done before designs are sent to the foundry for chip fabrication.

“Much of the current workflow relies heavily on human expertise. But as processes evolve, the shift towards tool-based solutions becomes inevitable. Wherever there are manual interventions, agentic tools can take over,” the cofounder said.

This has led to Maieutic’s vision to automate tasks that are process-heavy and offer little IP value to designers.

While digital and analog circuits differ in function, use cases, and design, most automation is on the digital side. Few have successfully cracked the code for automating the analog part of chip design. If Maieutic succeeds, it can significantly impact this underdeveloped segment.

“Automation in analog and mixed-signal design has been a black art [well, almost] or tribe knowledge limited to a community of specialists,” said Chinnu Senthilkumar, managing partner at Exfinity, which has invested in Maieutic.

Earlier, he held technical leadership roles at Texas Instruments, Intel and SanDisk (now part of Western Digital) and firmly believes that only a GenAI-driven approach can crack this tough problem.

“Every chip comes with digital and analog components. Much has been done to automate the digital side over the past 30 years. But the analog part, typically 5-10% of the chip, has eluded automation. With GenAI and the specialised ‘tribe’ [community] knowledge, it’s now possible to automate analog design and improve the cycle,” he added.

The Technology & The Initial Target

Maieutic’s technology stack revolves around leveraging open-source foundational models and fine-tuning them with curated, proprietary datasets. Combining these models with specialised knowledge in analog design, it is building a copilot to help automate the early stages of chip design workflows.

The focus is on creating an application for high-demand areas like battery management systems, mixed-signal sensors and wireless technologies (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). By simplifying the analog design process, Maieutic hopes to make these chips more accessible to a wide range of companies, reducing both time-to-market and design costs.

Currently, the startup is gathering more data and problem statements from potential customers to train its GenAI application. The next major milestone is deploying prototypes to customers. Insights from these initial deployments will guide the startup in refining key areas before finalising the product.

According to Lachhwani, the application will be useful for all chip-making processes. But its initial focus will be the analog side, a market long underserved by current solutions.

Even though analog is a niche market with inherent risks, investor Senthilkumar finds Maieutic a compelling bet due to its differentiated technology. The founders’ entrepreneurial experience and deep expertise in analog and mixed-signal systems have also made the VC bullish.

“With the Make-in-India initiative gaining momentum, the timing could not have been better for Maieutic to enter the market,” said Senthilkumar. “The ecosystem is ripe for innovation, and startups emerging across the board have the potential to serve global markets.”

Can Maieutic Create A Niche For Semiconductor Innovation?

Maieutic’s journey is especially significant in the context of India’s semiconductor ambitions. Historically, the country has been a backend hub for chip design behemoths. But the creation of core intellectual property has been rare until now. With initiatives like the government’s INR 76K Cr semiconductor mission, it is now pushing domestic manufacturing for self-reliance and aims to emerge as a global leader in fabless semiconductor design.

Startups like Mindgrove Technologies, AGNIT Semiconductors, Aura Semiconductor and a few others have already started taking small steps towards production after a much-needed boost from the government via the design-linked incentive (DLI). At this juncture, a startup like Maieutic that can help accelerate the chip design process with a GenAI-first approach holds significant relevance.

Its efforts to innovate in analog IC design could catalyse future breakthroughs, helping the domestic industry carve a niche in the development of foundational semiconductor tools and the EDA (electronic design automation) market.

Meanwhile, Maieutic is making the best of its seed funding. It is speeding up product development and planning to build a strong team of 25-30 within a year, as it nears commercial deployment. As the startup is keen to tie up with global foundries and EDA firms, it also focusses on country-specific certifications and qualifications required for its software.

Although Maieutic has chosen a sector that is not widely explored, it is not alone in this endeavour. Global competitors like the US-based Cognichip and Canada-based Astrus are also exploring the intersection of GenAI and semiconductor design. Maieutic’s founders don’t consider them direct competitors, as some larger chip design companies are also developing in-house AI tools to address similar issues. However, they acknowledge the growing interest of the tech world in this space.

It will be interesting to track Maieutic’s growth from here and see if it can bolster India’s standing in the global deeptech market.

[Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal]

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