Can satellites be refuelled while they are in space? Many may jitter to answer this question. But these two young men from Chennai will not. Shaktikumar and Nikhil came up with the start-up idea of creating a tanker satellite that could be sent into space to refuel. Based on this idea, the duo started their own start-up called OrbitAID.
This idea can sound a little ambitious, but because of its exclusivity, it has a huge scope. OrbitAID has become the only Indian player in the ‘On Orbit Service (OOS)’ market, worth $18 billion (according to Northern Sky Research).
This is the tale of one company based in Tamil Nadu, which created a shock wave in the space exploration aspirations of the entire country. Many other Indian companies and small start-ups are also coming up with innovations, that too at more affordable rates than that offered by foreign companies. More students, aeronautical engineers and retired scientists want to enter the space tech market. But, the task of providing opportunities to all these stakeholders, equally, cannot alone be done by the government. There is a requirement for private sector intervention in the space technology market, not only because it is an expensive sector but also because it is constantly booming.
This World Space Week, we look at the top ten space tech companies, all born in India within the last decade:
1. Aadya Aerospace:
Based out of Bengaluru, this innovative aerospace start-up aims to revolutionise aeronautical and defence engineering technology solutions. The start-up was founded in 2016 by Shagu Stephen, with a focus on manufacturing cutting-edge actuation systems, missiles and launch vehicles. Within one year of its establishment, Aadya Aerospace secured $1 million in the form of foreign investment.
2. AgniKul:
Established in 2017 by Shrinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM and SR Charavarty, this space tech StartUp has secured its own launchpad and mission control centre at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. This is a big deal for any private company, which otherwise struggles for permissions and restrictions. The start-up has become one of the first Indian private enterprises to forge a strong partnership with both ISRO as well as In-SPACe. AgniKul has come to garner support from notable angel investors, including Anand Mahindra, Nitin Kamath of Zerodha and many others.
3.Pixxel:
This is a space technology start-up founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal while completing their education at BITS Pilani. The focus of the start-up is to develop high-resolution Earth Observation Satellites (EOS). One of the first hyperspectral imaging satellites launched by Pixxel was ‘Shakuntala’. This satellite transmits essential data concerning climate change, deforestation, icecap melting, gas leaks and crop health. Because of the satellite’s high utility, the start-up can acquire funding of over $36 million from investors, including Google, Omnivore VC and Radical Ventures.
4.Square Root Aerospace:
Founded in 2018 by former engineers and scientists from ISRO, SkyRoot Aerospace works with a mission to ‘open space for all’, by developing affordable and reliable launch vehicles for small satellites. It has its headquarters in Hyderabad, Telangana and is working on the Vikram series satellite, which is to be launched soon. Because of its trusted and legitimate background, the organization has raised over $51 million in funding, to date
5.Bellatrix Aerospace:
Headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka and founded in 2015 by Rohan M Ganapathy and Yashas Karanam, the company aims to develop small satellite launch vehicles called ‘Chetak’ as part of its upcoming projects. The company was able to back orders from ISRO and the government of Karnataka. Now, because of its good track record, the company was able to raise $11.3 million in funding.
6. Dhruva Space:
This national award winning space technology company focuses on building full stack space engineering solution which includes satellites, launch services and outer space based technology solutions. Based out of Hyderabad, this Indian company received authorisation from IN-SPACe in 2024 to provide ground stations services to India based space exploration missions. Recently, the company bagged $9 billion from IAN Alpha Funds because of its track record of completing four space missions in past two years.
7. Astrogate Labs
This is a space communication company founded in 2017 by Aditya Kedlaya and Nitish Singh. The company aims to establish space-to-ground laser high-speed communication links so that data transmission becomes easier. With its headquarters in Bangalore, the start-up manages a network of optical ground stations and in-space relays. Benefiting from the increasing demand for small satellite operations in India, the company has successfully secured $200 thousand from 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund in 2020. Now, the company aims to become one one-stop solution for optical communication systems, both on the Earth as well as in outer space.
8.Digantara:
This is a Bengaluru-based start-up, which was founded in 2018 by 3 people: Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat and Tanveer Ahmed. The company’s mission is to create an ecosystem for small satellites within India. Alongside this, the company also wants to make a strong network of local partners to resolve the difficulties of space operations and traffic. This will be done by developing a space debris detector for space objects that can damage a satellite. An online platform called ‘Space Mission Assurance Platform’ will further serve as an end-to-end traffic management system. In 2024, the company also launched its satellite Pushan-Alpha, which will serve as the space weather testbed in the sun-synchronous side of Earth’s orbit.
9. Eon Space Labs:
The company was founded in 2022 and is new to the space exploration market in India. The founders, Puneet Badeka, Manoj Kumar Gaddam and Sanjay Kumar established the start-up to manufacture good quality optical payloads for satellites, UAVs and drones. The company’s clientele receives services in the form of high-resolution images using smaller satellites. Still in search of a strong investor, Eon aims to develop a constellation of satellites for real-time monitoring and surveillance. The simple aim of this recent start-up is to build satellites that have the power to capture all infrastructures and geographies.
10. GalaxyEye Space:
Established in 2020, the start-up has a bouquet of founders, like Denil Chawda and Suyash Singh to name a few. The company is based out of Chennai and aims to provide multi-sensor imagery via satellites. The company claims to provide all high-resolution images at any time without any atmospheric interference. With this, the start-up has been able to raise around $4 million from investors, including Anicut Capitals, Veda VC, Zerodha founder, etc. The ambitious plan of the start-up is to launch its first-ever satellite in the second half of 2024.
