zeroRISC

About zeroRISC

zeroRISC provides silicon supply chain integrity solutions by commercializing the OpenTitan project, the first open-source silicon Root of Trust (RoT). Founded in April 2023 by Dominic Rizzo and other original OpenTitan project members from Google, the Boston-based company aims to make foundational hardware security transparent and accessible. Rizzo's journey began with founding the OpenTitan project at Google in 2019, driven by the need for a trustworthy, open-source hardware foundation to secure data centers and devices from the silicon up. This initiative evolved into zeroRISC to bridge the gap between open-source development and commercial adoption.

The company's business model centers on providing a full-stack security solution that includes silicon, software, and cloud services, shifting from a simple silicon provider to an "identity-as-a-service" model. This targets clients in data centers, industrial control systems (ICS/OT), IoT, and edge computing. The core offering is the Integrity Management Platform (IMP), an all-in-one solution that combines OpenTitan-based silicon, a secure embedded operating system, and cloud-based management tools. This platform operates below the main operating system to verify that a device boots with authorized code, effectively creating an immutable fingerprint in the silicon. This approach decouples device security from its place of manufacture, giving device owners control over security policies through software, rather than relying on manufacturers.

A key milestone was the commercial availability of the first OpenTitan chip in February 2024, produced in partnership with Nuvoton Technology Corporation. This chip is hardened against physical attacks and supports post-quantum cryptography for firmware signing, ensuring long-term security. zeroRISC has secured significant seed funding, initially raising $5 million in October 2023, led by Cambridge Angels, and later closing an oversubscribed round of $10 million in June 2025, led by Fontinalis Partners, bringing its total raised to over $15 million.