Intel invests in Saankhya Labs

Intel Capital, the venture capital (VC) arm of the world’s largest chip maker, announced an investment of $20 million (Rs. 97.8 crore) in six Indian companies. Out of which one is Saankhya Labs, Bangalore whose CTO and co-founder is Parag Naik a Belgaumite.

Chipmaker Intel’s global investment arm Intel Capital has announced an investment of $20 million in six Indian companies. Three of these investments – Saankhya Labs, TestingCzars and FINO – have been completed while investment agreements have been signed with What’s On India, enStage and DURON Energy. Specific investment details were not disclosed but sources said majority of the funding was towards Saankhya Labs.

Set up in 2007, Saankhya is a Bangalore-based fabless semiconductor company that has developed a software-defined radio app which can be used in all televisions (and not just Smart TVs) for improved functionality. This is the first semiconductor product company that the chipmaker’s investment arm has backed in India.

Saankhya is developing World’s First Software-Defined Universal Demodulator IC for Digital and Analog TV reception. Saankhya’s solutions solve this problem in a unique way. Their solution decreases the cost of a regional TV set as well as the cost of manufacturing a world TV receiver.

Parag Naik who is currently the CTO and co-founder Saankhya Labs did his schooling from St.Pauls high school and then his engineering (CS) from Gogte Institute of technology (1992).

Parag has over 16 years of industry experience, which includes product development, system/software architecture and management. He was the co-founder and CTO of Smart Yantra, a media streaming IP and Systems Company. At Smart Yantra he conceived and architected the world’s first Video over WiFi system solution. Smart Yantra was acquired by Genesis Microchip in 2004. He also co-founded Vayavya labs, an ESL company in 2006, where he is currently a Board Member. At Ishoni Networks he was one of the key architects of the world’s first Gateway on Chip solution. At Philips Research and Consumer Electronics he was instrumental in defining software and system architectures for a range of Analog and Digital TV products. He has filed 3 US patents.