As AI data centers hit power limits, Peak XV backs Indian startup C2i to fix the bottleneck

Peak XV Partners led a 15 million dollar Series A round in C2i Semiconductors. The two-year-old Indian startup develops plug-and-play, system-level power solutions for AI data centers. The round included participation from Yali Deeptech and TDK Ventures and raised the company's total funding to 19 million dollars. C2i is redesigning power delivery as an integrated grid-to-GPU platform that spans the data center bus to the processor. The company estimates the approach can cut end-to-end losses by around 10 percent, or roughly 100 kilowatts saved per megawatt consumed. Co-founder and CTO Preetam Tadeparthy said the process of stepping down high-voltage power currently wastes 15 to 20 percent of energy. Data center electricity consumption is projected to nearly triple by 2035, according to a December 2025 BloombergNEF report. Goldman Sachs Research estimates data center power demand could surge 175 percent by 2030 from 2023 levels. Tadeparthy said voltage levels have moved from 400 volts to 800 volts and will likely go higher. C2i was founded in 2024 in Bengaluru by former Texas Instruments power executives Ram Anant, Vikram Gakhar, Preetam Tadeparthy, Dattatreya Suryanarayana, Harsha S. B., and Muthusubramanian N. V. The company has built a team of about 65 engineers and is establishing customer-facing operations in the United States and Taiwan. Its first two silicon designs are expected back from fabrication between April and June. Rajan Anandan, managing director at Peak XV Partners, said energy costs become the dominant ongoing expense for data centers after upfront capital investments in servers and facilities. He noted that reductions of 10 to 30 percent in energy costs could amount to tens of billions of dollars. Anandan said the semiconductor design ecosystem in India is just getting started, comparable to e-commerce in 2008.