India’s space startups are taking off. But can they scale?

BENGALURU: When Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 lifted off on Jul 18, it marked a historic breakthrough for India’s commercial space industry.India is now the third country, after the United States and China, capable of orbital launches through a private enterprise.Skyroot became India's first space startup to cross a US$1 billion valuation after raising US$60 million in a funding round co-led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Sherpalo Ventures in May.The Vikram-1, a seven-storey, multi-stage launch vehicle, is designed to carry payloads of up to 350kg into low-Earth orbit.The successful launch demonstrated how far India’s private space sector has come since the government opened the industry to greater private participation in 2020.But industry players say access to funding remains a hurdle, particularly as companies move beyond proving their technology and require large investments to expand.

The Vikram-1, a seven-storey, multi-stage launch vehicle, is designed to carry payloads of up to 350kg into low-Earth orbit. (Image: CNA)

OPENING UP INDIA’S SPACE SECTORFor decades, India’s space programme was dominated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which built the country’s rockets, satellites and supporting infrastructure.After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration opened the sector to private firms, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) was established to regulate the sector and promote private participation.Today, more than 400 companies are part of India’s private space ecosystem, according to IN-SPACe.“We are trying to see what technology transfer can be done with ISRO so they don’t reinvent the wheel,” said IN-SPACe director Rajeev Jyoti.“We are also trying to create technology adoption funds, different types of schemes, public partnerships, generating demand.”NEW COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIESIn June, the agency selected its first group of startups for funding under its Technology Adoption Fund (TAF) scheme.Among them was Bengaluru-based SatSure, which uses satellite images of Earth to produce information for decision-making on agriculture, infrastructure, lending and insurance.The Indian government is backing SatSure to develop Dhaarini, an Earth intelligence system powered by India-specific artificial intelligence capabilities.SatSure co-founder and chief executive Prateep Basu described the project as a “backbone” for making sense of the huge volume and variety of satellite imagery being generated.“You can simply interface like what you do on ChatGPT. You can interface over Dhaarini – tell me what happened on this particular piece of land and it will give you the answers,” said Basu.Systems such as SatSure’s depend on a constant supply of reliable observations, creating another commercial opportunity for Indian companies building and operating satellites.Another Bengaluru-based company, Pixxel, is building what it calls a “health monitor for the planet” using hyperspectral imaging satellites. The start-up is backed by Google.The technology creates a detailed dataset using information captured across many different wavelengths of light.“Since no one else was doing it commercially globally, we thought, okay, here's a gap we can build and launch our own constellation of hyperspectral satellites,” said Pixxel founder and chief executive Awais Ahmed.“That would be our entry point into being something that we can be the best in the world.”In 2024, Pixxel was selected by NASA to supply commercial hyperspectral Earth-observation data for scientific research.It now has six satellites in orbit and aims to launch up to 24 more over the next two years.Pixxel and SatSure are also part of Allied Orbits, a four-company private consortium that plans to invest more than US$130 million in a 12-satellite Earth-observation network.Backed by IN-SPACe, the goal is to collect data for a wide range of uses – from agriculture to climate change monitoring and disaster response.