There has never been funding to the tune of this before in the Indian spacetech sector, that, too, with heavy government support and serious innovations. According to research report by market intelligence firm Tracxn, the sector saw record funding of $126 m in 2023—up 7% from the $118 m raised in 2022 and a stunning 235% surge from $37.6 m in 2021. Its year-to-date funding for the sector was $10.8 million as of 2024.
PC: Yes Punjab News
The Rs 1,000-crore allocation by the Union Budget would be a game-changer for the industry by bringing in more entrepreneurship and investments in due course of time. India has over 100 spacetech startups today; most of them are less than five years old. This fast-growing ecosystem finds support from 55 active space assets that include communication, meteorological, and earth observation satellites.
Neha Singh, Co-founder of Tracxn, highlighted the strategic significance of current funding and investments: “The high funding and strategic investments that are happening today are laying the foundation for India to play an important role in the global space industry.” She said a strong pipeline of early-stage funding along with supporting policies by the government will be required to fuel this growth and help place India on the global map as a hub of excellence in space exploration and technology.
Of the $126 million raised in 2023, some $120 million was in early-stage rounds, a strong step up from $114 million in 2022—representing 5 percent growth. So far in 2024, $8.5 million has been raised in early-stage funding. Seed-stage funding has dramatically grown from $4.3 million in 2022 to $5.3 million in 2023—up 24 percent.
Despite this, the growth in early-stage and seed-stage funding, the nascent ecosystem of private sector participation in Indian spacetech startups has not seen any late-stage funding yet. Skyroot Aerospace leads the highest-funded active spacetech startup in India with an overall funding of $99.8 million, followed by Pixxel at $71.7 million and Agnikul at $61.5 million; no other startup in this segment has raised funds above $50 million.
The funding landscape has been vibrant, and there have been no acquisitions so far in 2024. There was one acquisition: the 2022 acquisition of Prakshep, a satellite imagery provider for agriculture, by Arya. Bengaluru tops the list of the top-funded cities in India’s spacetech, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai.
These new records of funding and strategic investments will definitely throw India up there in the global spacetech industry. With unabated government support and new sophisticated technological discoveries and innovations, the country has clearly stayed on course to become one of the world’s space technology exploration giants.
