Funding Roundup: Leanwatts, Makr Microsystems Raise Seed Capital

Two hardware-focused startups closed funding rounds this week, backing power electronics and semiconductor metrology development in India.

1. Leanwatts

Power electronics startup Leanwatts has raised approximately USD 2 million (INR 18.15 crore) in seed funding across two tranches, led by Trivest Partners, with participation from angel investors Abraham George and Alok Rungta.

Founded in October 2023 by Pradeep Chowdary, Abhilash Reddy and Sujith Kumar, Leanwatts manufactures power electronics products from its Hyderabad facility, with in-house capabilities across hardware design, embedded firmware and testing. The company began with EV charging, offering portable and onboard chargers ranging from 500W to 6.6kW, and is expanding into public charging solutions, rectifiers, power modules and hybrid inverters.

“Products for India have to be engineered around Indian realities – our grid conditions, operating environments and the diverse requirements of OEMs,” said Sujith Kumar, Co-founder, Leanwatts.

The company is targeting an annualised revenue run-rate of about INR 60 crore (USD 6.25 million) by March 2027.

2. Makr Microsystems

Bluehill VC has led an INR 10.2 crore seed round in Makr Microsystems, a semiconductor metrology startup, with participation from Artha Venture Fund.

Makr is developing Acoustic Atomic Force Microscopy technology that allows chipmakers to measure structures and defects beneath a chip’s surface at the nanoscale, addressing inspection challenges in advanced packaging, hybrid bonding and chiplet interconnects. The funds will support technology development, customer validation and commercial deployment.

Founded by Ashwin Lal, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and EPFL, Makr’s applications include defect detection for increasingly complex 3D chip architectures.

“Semiconductor manufacturing is creating structures that are increasingly difficult to see and measure. Our goal is to make the subsurface measurable, non-destructively,” said Ashwin Lal, Founder, Makr Microsystems.

The round follows Bluehill VC’s final close of its maiden fund at INR 400 crore.