ZeroRISC, a leading provider of silicon supply chain integrity solutions utilizing open-source silicon, has announced the closing of its oversubscribed seed round, raising $10 million in new funding led by Fontinalis Partners. And additional participants include Fundomo, Analog Devices co-founder Ray Stata, SemiAnalysis founder Dylan Patel, SBXi, Chelpis, Bond Street, and existing angel investors.
ZeroRISC’s secure-by-design approach begins security as early as possible during chip design and manufacturing, utilizing transparent OpenTitan-based implementations. And this assurance-first approach ensures that security starts below the operating system, protecting against the most sophisticated hardware and firmware attacks and more common software vulnerabilities.
In February 2024, ZeroRISC introduced the first open-source chip built on the OpenTitan secure silicon design, produced commercially by Nuvoton Technology Corporation. This platform RoT marks a critical milestone in bringing trustworthy and secure open silicon to the global market. Based on strong interest from end users, OEMs, and SoC vendors, ZeroRISC is offering an early access program to express interest in the first silicon or future collaboration.
Dominic Rizzo: ZeroRISC CEO and founder Dominic Rizzo founded the OpenTitan project in 2019, which is the first open-source silicon root of trust (RoT) and the first ever open-source chip to reach widespread commercial availability. And since founding ZeroRISC in April 2023, Rizzo and his team have been pivotal in advancing a vision of secure, open silicon for all. The team successfully transitioned the project from development to commercialization in partnership with Nuvoton and the open-source ecosystem, driving its first commercial tapeout.
How the funding will be used: ZeroRISC is also expanding access to production-grade and OpenTitan-based designs, suitable for every stratum of the silicon supply chain, from IoT to data centers. Designed for seamless integration into system-on-chips (SoCs), chiplets, and devices, its universal silicon security platform supports a wide range of applications. ZeroRISC’s Integrity Management Platform (IMP) decouples device security from place of manufacture, scaling ownership and control with software rather than relying on physical possession. And device consumers can define security policies suited to their operational needs rather than depending on operating system developers or manufacturers to impose ill-fitting controls.
KEY QUOTES:
“ZeroRISC is executing on a classic Silicon Valley playbook – the founder of an open-source project launches a startup to bring the technology to a broader universe of enterprise customers. Commercial open silicon can enable a new generation of secure-by-default devices.”
Gabe Cunningham, Partner, Fontinalis
“Once considered a niche idea, open-source silicon is becoming an inevitability with the adoption of implementations like OpenTitan by Google. Leveraging open-source silicon means we can deliver ‘big tech’-like device security to every segment of the silicon ecosystem. Moving away from unverifiable ‘black boxes’ and towards fully transparent and verifiable foundations unlocks a new paradigm, putting device owners back in control of their remotely connected devices without requiring physical diligence by hardware manufacturers. Instead, any trusted stakeholder in the supply chain can leverage ZeroRISC’s software-based monitoring to build confidence and retain control.”
Dominic Rizzo
“ZeroRISC is making truly trustworthy supply chain security accessible to every organization and end customer, not just those with specialized hardware or significant budgets. This is a massive shift.”
Analog Devices co-founder Ray Stata
“ZeroRISC will become a foundational requirement for future systems essential for combating AI deepfakes and similar threats by ensuring end-to-end attestation, from real sensor data capture to the verified AI model and prompt used to generate outputs.”
Rajeev Surati, Investor, Fundomo
