AI Startup SixSense Raises USD 8.5 Mn for Global Semiconductor Expansion
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Deep tech startup SixSense has secured USD 8.5 million in funding led by Peak XV's Surge, with additional participation from Alpha Intelligence Capital, Febe, and other investors.
The funds will be used to expand operations into semiconductor manufacturing hubs in Malaysia, Taiwan, and the United States, strengthen partnerships with AI-focused inspection equipment manufacturers, and invest in research aimed at enabling connected AI-driven decision-making across entire production lines.
"Making a single chip is one of the most demanding feats in modern manufacturing. It happens in cleanrooms thousands of times cleaner than hospital operating rooms and relies on precise coordination across hundreds of machines and thousands of ultra-sensitive steps," said Akanksha Jagwani, Co-founder and CEO of SixSense. "Imagine trying to build a skyscraper out of microscopic Lego blocks, where a tiny shift in one brick, invisible to the eye, can collapse the whole structure. That is what chip factories face every day." Spotting early signs of failure before they spiral into costly defects or delays is a major challenge and that is where AI becomes essential.
Founded by engineers Akanksha Jagwani and Avni Agarwal, SixSense was established to address the semiconductor industry's need for real-time intelligence from production data. The company's platform processes information from defect images and equipment signals to prevent quality issues, improve throughput, and increase the number of functional chips produced.
SixSense offers an AI-powered system that identifies and predicts defects, enabling semiconductor plants to shift from reactive inspection to proactive process control. It can detect small, rare, and critical defects that human inspectors may overlook, reduce the rejection of functional chips, and anticipate process drifts before they lead to larger failures.
"Unlike traditional AI tools, SixSense is hardware agnostic, explainable, and built for engineers rather than data scientists," said Avni Agarwal, Co-founder and CTO. "Process engineers can fine-tune models using their own fab data, deploy them in under two days, and trust the results, all without writing a single line of code. That is what makes the platform both powerful and practical."
The company's technology is already in use at major semiconductor manufacturers, including GlobalFoundries and JCET. SixSense reports that its customers have processed over 100 million chips using its platform, achieving up to 30 percent faster production cycles, a one to two percent improvement in yield, and more than 90 percent reduction in manual effort. The platform is compatible with inspection equipment from vendors covering over 60 percent of the market.
"We started with one step in the process, defect review, and quickly realised customers needed more," added Jagwani. "Now we are building the intelligence layer for the entire production line. It is the foundation every modern fab will need."
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