We build AI agents for chip design teams.

Unlike generic coding assistants, we build AI that actually understands the EDA flow — not just the syntax.

Founded 2025 · Zurich, Switzerland · VC-backed

[ Team photo ]
[ Founding photo ]

How it started

40% of every engineering day — wasted.

Harald Kröll spent years at ON Semiconductor and u-blox watching the same structural problem repeat itself: senior chip design engineers burning half their day on repetitive, low-level tasks. Bus interface generation. Testbench updates. Documentation rewrites.

When AI coding tools arrived, the same teams tried GitHub Copilot and Cursor. They failed — not because engineers lacked skill, but because the tools had no concept of an EDA toolchain, couldn't process a design hierarchy spanning thousands of files, and fell over the moment anyone tried to run a simulation.

Sandro Belfanti had spent parallel years at the intersection of chip design and AI. Together, they founded Chipmind in Zurich in 2025 — the first European AI agent platform built specifically for semiconductor engineering teams.

What we aim to achieve and why

Bring the fastest chip development experience to every semiconductor team — end-to-end.

From requirements to manufacturing. Through AI that understands the full flow — not just the syntax.

Mission

Build AI agents that handle the routine work — so chip design engineers can focus on the architectural decisions that define what's possible in computing.

Vision

A world where AI handles the entire chip development flow end-to-end — allowing human engineers to operate at a level of abstraction not yet possible.

Founding team and partners.

[ Photo ]

Harald Kröll

CEO & Co-Founder

Background in semiconductor industry operations — ON Semiconductor, u-blox, and others. Brings deep understanding of what slows down real design teams at scale.

"I've seen what 40% wasted engineering time looks like across hundreds of engineers. We built Chipmind to fix it."
[ Photo ]

Sandro Belfanti

CTO & Co-Founder

Dual expertise in chip design and AI systems. Architect of the Chipmind agent infrastructure — from context engine to in-flow execution layer.

"Chip design is one of the hardest software problems. It deserves AI built specifically for it."
[ Photo ]

Prof. Luca Benini

Scientific Advisor

Full Professor at ETH Zürich. World-renowned researcher in low-power chip design, RISC-V architecture, and AI hardware. Lends scientific depth and academic credibility to Chipmind's approach.

Backed by & partnered with

ForbesETH ZürichNVIDIA InceptionCHIPS-JUInnosuisseEuropean Innovation CouncilMicrosoft for Startups

Milestones achieved.

2025Founded in Zurich
2025Scientific partnership with ETH Zürich
2025First PoC with European semiconductor customer
2025VC-backed — first external funding
2025Selected for NVIDIA Inception Program
2025CHIPS-JU consortium member (EU)
2025Featured in Forbes
2026Microsoft for Startups
2026Innosuisse & European Innovation Council

Our impact and awards.

Measured results from real PoCs with semiconductor teams. Every number comes from an actual customer engagement.

faster

46 min → 7 min

Verification task — Senior Engineer

14× faster

4 hours → 18 min

RTL generation — Junior IC Designer

faster

21 min → 5 min

Integration task — Application Engineer

Awards & Recognition

Featured in Forbes
NVIDIA Inception Program
CHIPS-JU — EU Chip Design Consortium
Innosuisse — Swiss Innovation Agency
European Innovation Council

Academic & Industry Support

ETH Zürich — Scientific partnership
Microsoft for Startups
VC-backed — first external funding 2025

We're growing. Come build with us.

Hard problems. Real impact. Zurich-based with remote flexibility.

See open roles →

See Chipmind
in action.

We work in your environment, with your EDA tools, on your real designs. No ramp-up. No disruption. NDA protected from day one.

  • 6–14× speed-up on real tasks
  • IP stays in your environment
  • EDA-agnostic. No new licenses.
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