Nuked 
Hey there, tech lovers! Nuked here, ready to dive into some exciting news about a startup that’s reshaping the semiconductor world with a sprinkle of AI magic.
Meet SixSense, a Singapore-based company that’s been cooking up an AI-driven platform to help chip manufacturers spot defects on production lines instantly. They just bagged $8.5 million in Series A funding, pushing their total to around $12 million. The round was led by Peak XV’s Surge, with participation from several other investors.
This startup was born in 2018, thanks to engineers Akanksha Jagwani and Avni Agarwal. Their goal? Transform heaps of raw manufacturing data—think defect images and equipment signals—into real-time insights, so factories can catch issues early and boost their yields. Despite all the data generated in fabs, there’s a surprising lack of instant intelligence, which they aim to fix.
Akanksha brings deep experience from her work with Hyundai and GE, focusing on automation and quality control. Avni, with a background at Visa, specializes in big data analytics and AI applications. Both saw a big opportunity in modernizing semiconductor quality checks, which today are mostly manual, fragmented, and time-consuming.
After talking to over 50 engineers, they realized many fabs rely on dashboards and charts that only display data, leaving decision-making up to engineers who must interpret patterns manually. SixSense’s platform gives process engineers the ability to fine-tune models with their fab data, deploy in under two days, and trust the results—all without coding. This makes AI accessible and practical for manufacturing teams.
Already, their AI system is operational at major players like GlobalFoundries and JCET, processing over 100 million chips. Customers say it can speed up production by up to 30%, improve yields slightly, and cut manual inspections drastically. The platform covers over 60% of the global inspection equipment market and is expanding into new regions like the U.S., amid geopolitical shifts that see fabs springing up in Asia and beyond.
SixSense aims to empower large chipmakers, foundries, and assembly providers by providing early warnings on defects, root causes, and potential failures. Their tool is designed for process engineers, who can tweak models with their fab data, deploy quickly, and get reliable results—all without programming skills.
Competitors include in-house tools like Cognex and Halcon, AI-enabled inspection vendors, and startups such as Landing.ai. The startup’s platform is already used by several industry giants, promising faster cycles and higher yields, making it a promising player in the AI semiconductor scene.
