Professor Srinivasan Raghavan, widely known as Vasu, is Co-Founder and Managing Director of AGNIT Semiconductors, India's first vertically integrated Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor startup, and currently serves as Chair of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) at IISc Bengaluru.

Vasu earned his BE and ME in Metallurgy from VNIT Nagpur and IISc respectively, then completed his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, followed by postdoctoral research in GaN compound semiconductors.

A trained materials scientist and metallurgist, Vasu brings over 15 years of IISc-led GaN research to AGNIT, contributing to a patent portfolio of 15+ patents and over 150 journal publications on GaN technology.

Vasu co-founded AGNIT in 2019 alongside six IISc colleagues, collectively bringing over 100 years of cumulative GaN expertise spanning materials growth, device fabrication, and system integration. He also serves on the boards of two companies and is an angel investor in two startups.

AGNIT has raised $4.87M in funding, secured the 300th iDEX contract from India's Ministry of Defence, won the IESA Semiconductor Startup of the Year Award 2025, and is targeting production of 100,000 GaN chips within 12 months.