DLI Scheme-backed Aheesa and Zigma Partner to Take Indigenous VIHAAN-I Chip to Market

Aheesa Digital Innovations, a fabless semiconductor company, and The Zigma Technologies India (P) Ltd, an Indian technology, software, and e-governance services company, both headquartered in Chennai, have entered into a partnership with Zigma as the distribution partner to take VIHAAN-I, a first-of-its-kind indigenous networking chip, to market across India. Signed in the nation’s financial capital Mumbai, this agreement brings together Aheesa’s design capability with Zigma’s to carry indigenous silicon to the market across India and beyond.

The partnership comes after Aheesa’s successful VIHAAN-I tape-out on Republic Day (January 2026) and first-pass silicon success on Independence Day (August 2026), achieved on its very first attempt. This chip will help reduce dependence on imported networking silicon and to support locally manufactured broadband devices. Taking a chip like this into the country’s networks calls for a partner already embedded in the systems, and Zigma has spent close to three decades in precisely that terrain, delivering technology and e-governance infrastructure to OEMs, ODMs, and Government departments nationwide.

The chip will now proceed towards production, targeted for 2027, a significant milestone in India’s efforts to build a homegrown semiconductor ecosystem, closely aligned with the Government of India’s Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives.

“This is a defining decade for India’s semiconductor story, as we move from technology consumption to technology creation,” said Sridharan Mani, Founder and CEO, Aheesa Digital Innovations. “At Aheesa, we dream beyond boundaries — building the capabilities, scale, and industry that will shape India’s semiconductor future. It is our vision to see Indian-designed chips serving both domestic and global markets. The partnership with Zigma brings together two companies with complementary strengths and a shared ambition for a Viksit Bharat.”

For close to three decades, Zigma has been a trusted partner to government departments, OEMs, and ODMs across India, turning technology into working infrastructure at national scale. Its work spans software, IT infrastructure, hardware, and e-governance, alongside its own platforms and products, the foundation on which it now helps bring indigenous silicon to market.

“Zigma has worked at the intersection of technology and public infrastructure, building the systems that carry India’s digital services to its people,” said Raja Kathiravan, Managing Director, The Zigma Technologies India (P) Ltd. “Indigenous silicon is the natural next layer of that infrastructure. In VIHAAN-I, we saw a homegrown broadband chip we could take straight into the systems we help build, and in Aheesa, a partner who shares our conviction about what Indian engineering can achieve. Together, we intend to put Indian silicon at the heart of the country’s digital backbone.”

Aheesa’s work spans indigenous semiconductor and networking technologies across telecom, broadband, cybersecurity, and edge computing. This partnership now reflects the wider momentum in India’s semiconductor design ecosystem, now scaling under Semicon 2.0 — the INR 1,27,500 crore program approved in July 2026 to build a globally competitive supply chain across chip design, manufacturing, packaging, and materials. As indigenous designs move from validation towards commercial adoption, it is partnerships like this, pairing Indian chip design with the reach to deploy it, that will help define how homegrown silicon scales.

For more information: www.aheesa.com