Chipmind exits stealth with $2.5M to launch AI agents for faster chip design

Zurich-based Chipmind has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Founderful, with participation from angel investors in the semiconductor industry. The company is also introducing Chipmind Agents, AI tools designed to help engineering teams at semiconductor firms streamline workflows from specification to manufacturing.

With demand for higher-performance chips rising and design complexity growing, traditional methods are under strain while a new generation of engineers expects AI-enabled workflows, conditions that favour collaborative, AI-driven tools.

Chipmind develops AI agents that integrate with existing chip design tools to automate complex design and verification tasks, helping semiconductor companies accelerate development, reduce errors, and drive innovation.

Built on each customer’s proprietary, design-specific data, Chipmind Agents adapt to project context, work with proprietary EDA flows, and understand full design hierarchies, executing multi-step tasks while keeping engineers in control. An underlying agent-building platform readies current designs and environments for agentic automation without replacing legacy systems.

Harald Kröll, co-founder and CEO of Chipmind, explained that while customisation and data protection are essential in the semiconductor industry, the real differentiator lies in design awareness. This means a system’s ability to understand each chip’s unique hierarchy, constraints, and proprietary tool environment, turning it from a generic tool into an intelligent partner.

Our 'design-aware' agents are engineered to holistically understand the entire chip context, not just the surrounding tools. We’ve found this deep awareness is the key that unlocks productivity, translating directly into significant time savings on the most complex tasks, all while integrating seamlessly into existing workflows,

Kröll added.

Chipmind will use pre-seed funding to grow the engineering team, accelerate product development, and expand collaborations with industry partners.