Bhaskar Kakani’s “Lagaan”-inspired life story has all the highs and lows of his favourite Bollywood cricket movie. As a co-founder and CEO of one of India’s leading chip design services companies, he gives us the backstory on BITSILICA’s success and IIIT Hyderabad’s role in his journey.
Born and raised in the small town of Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, there were few clues in early life to indicate that the self-anointed expert in street cricket would one day rise to be one of India’s most successful semiconductor design services providers.
An alumnus of IIIT Hyderabad’s M.Tech program in VLSI & Embedded Systems (2006–2008), Kakani’s early career at Synopsys and Xilinx (now AMD) had all the markings of a successful engineer; working on advanced verification technologies, PCIe solutions, FPGA platforms, and complex SoC development programs.
But an overarching desire to be a part of Indian bureaucracy would lead to a protractive period of study and failed attempts to crack the UPSC Civil Services examination. The setback would eventually become a decisive turning point in his journey.
Fast forward to 2019–2020. Bhaskar Kakani co-founded BITSILICA, a world-class semiconductor design services company that now has a presence in five countries: India, the United States, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
While re-entering a lucrative job was not difficult for someone with his profile and skill set, his latent entrepreneurial drive had other plans.
Kakani believes that the courage and patience to stick to the long game and succeed in entrepreneurship came from the IIIT Hyderabad playbook and the lessons learned during his two-year M.Tech in VLSI & Embedded Systems.
Journey to IIIT Hyderabad
It was a conversation in an internet café about the emerging and exciting VLSI domain that would encourage Kakani to explore the topic for his Masters’. He had completed his B. Tech in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2006.
“Looking beyond the IIT tag, thanks to positive feedback received, I opted for M. Tech in IIIT Hyderabad”, he says. Coming from a humble background where he and his brother Anjibabu were first generation collegegoers, this was a huge leap of faith for him. “The computer science courses, be it advanced problem solving, algorithms or mathematical courses really laid the foundation for me to become a chip designer”, Kakani admits.
‘‘A single room on campus, purchasing my laptop on an educational loan and the company of intellectual friends made me feel fortunate and blessed. From struggling in my first semester, the ecosystem motivated me to make it to the Dean’s merit list subsequently”.
IIIT-H – a nurturing ecosystem
Kakani points out that IIIT Hyderabad’s culture encourages the free spirit to flourish.
It is not just one final exam that decides your fate. Above coursework, lab assignments and assessment, it is continuous evaluation that defines your calibre. Engaging classroom sessions, the fun-filled mix of friends from undergraduate to PhD scholars, that subtle edge of competitiveness were flavours that marked his two-year term.
Prof. Anoop Namboodiri’s sessions on Advanced Problem Solving, Prof. Prosenjit Gupta’s Discrete Mathematics, and Prof. Govindarajulu’s funny yet insightful Advanced Computer Architecture classes strengthened architectural concepts and chip design.
Kakani’s thesis advisor Prof. Satyam, Osmania University Prof. Rameshwar Rao’s course on VLSI design and Prof. MB Srinivas at CVEST gave his batch phenomenal edge during placements.
Chasing dreams in the semiconductor domain meant learning foundational skills; whether it was pitch deck and presentation styles, email etiquette, and especially speed reading through technology documents online “that helped enormously in the Embedded Systems Course and CVEST Lab. We would deep dive into IEEE papers and solve circuit problems, validate previous papers and ideate solutions.”
Volunteering with Ashakiran, the college-sponsored NGO and sharing his monthly scholarship to support a school for migrant children made a deep impact on him. The seed to help the marginalized with employment opportunities was planted here and continued to shape his thinking through every twist and turn of his life. Decades later, he would measure the success of BITSILICA, with the quantum of CSR funding channelled towards a health command centre and healthcare initiatives for girl children in rural Telangana via NGO Nirmaan.
Failure as a stepping stone
Post his Masters’ and two years into a lucrative professional career, he quit to prepare for his UPSC Civil Services examinations. While public service was not meant to be, this phase recalibrated the “technology guy’s” goals into entrepreneurship and business administration.
“To understand the business ecosystem in the semiconductor space, I consciously moved to service companies like Vaaluka and UST Global. During this time, I realised that global semiconductor design houses would require a vast pool of engineering talent and technology support to keep pace with rapid advancements in chip design. That realisation laid the foundation for BITSILICA. The entrepreneurial bug was always there, but I needed that sweet combination of connections, experience, expertise and funds,” Kakani says.
Make in India and BITSILICA’s role
Kakani founded BITSILICA only with a handful of engineers in 2019-20. Buying a new home and juggling salaries were initial speedbumps, that began easing up when Xilinx gave him his first break. From then on, there was no looking back, as the company signed up new customers and expanded to new geographies.
Today, BITSILICA is a globally respected million-dollar semiconductor engineering company serving multiple domains across artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, networking, wireless communications, automotive electronics, memory systems, and edge computing.
“We have 600 plus semiconductor engineers operating in five countries; with offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and onsite engineers in Singapore, Penang, Vietnam and USA”, Kakani says, reflecting on the company’s journey.
“As suppliers to global technology companies like AMD, Qualcomm, Samsung, Micron, Microchip, NXP etc, we serve in the successful execution of complex IP, subsystem, and full-SoC development programs”.
The engineering organization provides end-to-end capabilities spanning ASIC Design, Design Verification, Physical Design, DFT, FPGA Design, Embedded Systems & Software, Silicon Validation, and Systems Engineering.
But his greatest contribution has been his commitment to developing India’s semiconductor capabilities. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi showcased Made in India chips, designed and mentored by BITSILICA and Osmania University, Hyderabad, Kakani knew that he had made the grade!
Nurturing generations of engineers
As one of the industry’s youngest technocrats, Kakani’s involvement now extends to shaping government policy, R&D, academic research and ecosystem development.
Way back in 2021, he co-authored an IEEE publication on how chip design can be fast tracked with AI methodology. On Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)’s invitation, as an industry leader, he has contributed to a white paper to structure the future landscape of the Indian semiconductor industry.
An ardent supporter of government initiatives to bridge academia and industry, the entrepreneur has participated in the Government of India’s Chip-to-Startup (C2S) program to engage with students and researchers.
In collaboration with Indian School of Business(ISB) Centre for Business Innovation’s Semiconductor Learning Table, he promotes talent development, startup enablement, and stronger industry-academia partnerships as critical pillars of India’s semiconductor ambitions.
He has collaborated with IISc Bengaluru and several IITs to deliver 5G test-bed FPGA solutions, while partnering with institutions such as Osmania University and CBIT to strengthen the semiconductor talent pipeline.
Honors and an acquisition
BITSILICA’s achievements have received extensive industry recognition, including Qualcomm’s ‘Most Valuable Partner Award –Hardware’ for consecutive years.
Kakani has also been lauded as one of Hyderabad’s top corporate leaders for his contributions to technology leadership and entrepreneurship.
A defining milestone in his entrepreneurial journey came in April 2026 when BITSILICA was acquired by Singapore-based Quest Global.
“We want to prepare India to take on the next big revolution”, Kakani states.
“We probably have the best design talent, with 50 per cent of global chip designers being Indian. While India has the potential to be among the top five in design, in terms of manufacturing, we are almost two decades behind the curve. There is a lot more ground to cover but with our talent pool, and strong support from the Government of India and large legacy corporates, I have no doubt that we will make it a reality”.
For the IIIT Hyderabad community, he believes that an industry-collaborated semiconductor laboratory will be ideal for engineers to innovate and gain more traction.
Building character bit by bit
Growing up in Ongole, sports and cinema were great motivators for the young man, who spent most of his time outside school, playing cricket and watching movies at the local theatres. Sachin Tendulkar was a childhood favourite and inspiration for young Kakani.
Kakani derived strength from the unflinching support and trust of his parents. His wife Varsha, an electronics engineer whom he met while they chased their IAS dreams, completed her MBA and joined him in growing BITSILICA.
His ability to bounce back when the chips were down was inherited from his father Krishnamurthy. Kakani’s current stress busters are family trips with Varsha and son Rohansh, to tourist destinations like Singapore, Bali and Dubai.
He ascribes his love of reading to his UPSC-IAS exams preparation days. Exposure to diverse subjects like economics, public administration, political science, geography, psychology, ethics and business leadership moulded his entrepreneurial persona. Today, he enjoys sharing his thoughts on entrepreneurship, leadership, technology and chess in his LinkedIn posts.
“My close-knit group of friends from IIIT-H, along with those who prepared for and failed the UPSC-IAS exams with me, later became part of my success story. They are my Lagaan team now,” laughs Kakani, who believes that a simple lifestyle has been his secret to keeping stress at bay. “My failures were my stepping stones. They taught me to value the journey more than the destination,” he reflects.
Deepa Shailendra is a freelance writer for interior design publications; an irreverent blogger, consultant editor and author of two coffee table books. A social entrepreneur who believes that we are the harbingers of the transformation and can bring the change to better our world.