Nova Spectral AI has raised $2.2M in seed funding from Shastra VC and Equirus InnovateX Fund. The Bengaluru-based company is developing shortwave infrared (SWIR) image sensor chips built on lead-free indium arsenide colloidal quantum dots, integrated directly onto standard silicon CMOS.
SWIR imaging can see through darkness, smoke, haze, dust and light fog - conditions drones, robots and autonomous systems increasingly face in the field. But today's InGaAs sensors are too expensive to deploy widely. Nova Spectral AI works across the process in-house, from quantum dot ink chemistry and film deposition to charge transport layers and CMOS readout wafer integration, with ink and device R&D already underway. Its first mission, DrishyaTech, targets SWIR chips for India's drones, ISR systems and soldiers, with the longer aim of a compact, affordable, lead-free chip for global camera, automotive and consumer-electronics makers.
