The Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CfHE) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad has announced a strategic collaboration with Silicon Labs to accelerate the development and deployment of next-generation smart medical devices designed and manufactured in India. 

As part of the partnership, the two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together in nurturing entrepreneurship in healthcare.

The collaboration aims to empower Indian medical device start-ups and innovators by integrating advanced embedded systems, edge computing architectures, low-power wireless health monitoring technologies, secure IoT-enabled medical platforms, and AI-driven diagnostic and remote healthcare solutions powered by Silicon Labs' semiconductor technologies.

Speaking on the occasion, Manish Kothari, SVP, Silicon Labs, expressed the company's keen interest in working with the start-ups incubated at CfHE.

"This initiative will be first of its kind in India where the start-ups will have support and access to the range of energy efficient wireless MCU chips with edge-ML capability from Silicon to power their hardware."

As part of the collaboration, Silicon Labs and CfHE will jointly conduct workshops where medical device entrepreneurs will work with experts to familiarise themselves with advanced chipsets and IoT-enabled microprocessor boards from Silicon Labs.

Through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, Silicon Labs will also provide financial and technical support for pilot projects in hospitals and healthcare centres. This will enable start-ups to undertake early-stage deployment of their devices powered by Silicon Labs chipsets. 

The initiative is expected to facilitate the development of affordable and accessible healthcare solutions for underserved populations, while ensuring reliability in resource-constrained settings, compliance with global regulatory standards, and scalability for both Indian and international markets.

By incorporating Silicon Labs' semiconductor technologies into next-generation health-tech solutions, the collaboration aims to strengthen India's deep-tech medical device ecosystem and accelerate the translation of research innovations into real-world healthcare applications.

The partnership will focus on advancing embedded medical systems, low-power wireless patient monitoring platforms, edge-enabled remote diagnostics, secure IoT-integrated clinical devices, and AI-enabled clinical decision-support technologies. 

Through joint development, prototyping, validation, and deployment, the two organisations aim to create regulatory-compliant medical devices capable of competing globally while remaining affordable for India's healthcare system.

CfHE has built a strong track record in nurturing medical device start-ups, fostering intellectual property creation, and supporting commercialisation pathways. Under this CSR partnership, Silicon Labs will contribute its semiconductor platforms, technical expertise, and ecosystem support to accelerate product development and enhance device reliability and performance.

Professor Renu John, Founding Director and Chair, CfHE, said: "This collaboration aligns with national missions promoting indigenous innovation, deep-tech entrepreneurship, and self-reliance in critical healthcare technologies. CfHE fellows and start-ups will get the unique experience of working directly with companies in developing joint technologies."