Spacetech Startups Set to Propel India Further in the Modern Space Race According to the Indian Department of Space, the country's space economy is currently valued at USD 8.4 billion, constituting a 2 per cent share of the global market.

The sky could well be the limit for India's space technology (spacetech) sector which is expected to witness significant growth in the next few years, driven by factors such as increased participation from the private sector, substantial government support, and innovative startups contributing to the surge. The combined effect is likely to help India establish itself as a formidable player in the modern space race.

According to the Indian Department of Space, the country's space economy is currently valued at USD 8.4 billion, constituting a 2 per cent share of the global market. The government department said in a press release that the sector is poised to achieve USD 44 billion in valuation by 2033, including USD 11 billion in exports, taking India's share in the global arena to approximately 7-8 per cent.

The Union Cabinet has also introduced an INR 1000 crore venture capital (VC) fund dedicated to the country's spacetech startups. Developed by the IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center), the initiative was announced in October to propel the spacetech sector,

Growth stage investments in this program will range from INR 10-30 crore and later growth stage investments are said to range from INR 30-60 crore for supporting more established companies with strong growth trajectories. Based on the fund range, the government's VC fund aims to support close to 40 startups.

KaleidEO, a Bengaluru-based spacetech startup became the first startup from India to achieve edge computing in space last year and recently unveiled its 'High-Resolution Multispectral Payload', delivering the largest area coverage from India.

The development comes after the KaleidEO completed the aerial testing of its scaled-down prototype version of the high-resolution, optical, multispectral payload.

The SatSure subsidiary said in a statement that the industry presently faces the challenge of getting high-resolution images along with high coverage and in order to get a higher-resolution image, satellites need to reduce their swath or area coverage, making them almost inversely proportional to each other. According to the company, the payload configuration is designed to enable higher assurance of the quality of insights derived and efficiency improvement through automation.

Arpan Sahoo, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, KaleidEO said, "The KaleidEO payload emphasizes on a 'Demand First' approach unlike the traditional 'Supply First' approach. We configured the payload specification to the industry's need for large-area acquisition and automated analytics at scale.

Dhruva Space, another Bengaluru-based space tech startup, announced a milestone by launching AstraView, a commercial satellite imagery service designed to provide continuous insights into Earth. The company describes this move as a "move to further fuel decision-making across strategic and socio-economic use cases."

The startup revealed the offering as a result of strategic partnerships with leading spacetech companies like Array Labs, Axelspace, Capella Space, Geosat, Maxar, Planet, Satellogic, SI Imaging Services, Unseenlabs, and Wyvern.

Through the new technology, the company is able to provide customers to search and order archived imagery with the benefits of flexibility, lower costs, and access to satellite imagery without the operational complexity that comes along with owning and managing satellite infrastructure.

Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO, of Dhruva Space, said, "On-demand geospatial data is the need of the hour as life on Earth continues to evolve rapidly. Partnering with leading imagery companies of the world bolsters our technological advantage."