Digantara will use Elon Musk's SpaceX Rocket to Launch Satellite

On board SpaceX's Transporter-12 mission, Digantara, a space surveillance business located in Bengaluru, is scheduled to launch its first dedicated surveillance satellite, SCOT (space camera for object tracking). Notably, SCOT fills in the gaps in the current global space surveillance systems by being built to track resident space objects (RSOs) with high frequency and accuracy. In low earth orbit (LEO), the satellite can track objects as tiny as 5 cm and provide continuous monitoring that is not impacted by weather or geographical restrictions. Digantara CEO Anirudh Sharma stated that the company is taking a significant step towards attaining surveillance superiority with SCOT, guaranteeing not only a more secure and sustainable space environment but also protecting sovereign assets in the face of a space domain that is becoming more and more disputed.

Facilitating Safer Spacecraft Operations

By maintaining a sun-synchronous orbit, the satellite will facilitate safer spacecraft operations and allow for ongoing monitoring of the near-Earth environment. Digantara, which was founded in 2018 by Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat, and Tanveer Ahmed, is developing an end-to-end space operations infrastructure with the goal of assisting stakeholders throughout a spacecraft mission's whole value chain and life cycle. The business wants to build a constellation of satellites to follow things as small as 1 cm, and its flagship product is its own space debris detector. The startup's Series A1 investment round ended last year with a final close of $12 million. Digantara has garnered $14.5 million in capital to date, supported by companies such as Aditya Birla Ventures, Peak XV Partners, and the state-backed Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The Ever Expanding Indian Spacetech Market

Digantara is part of the broader Indian spacetech industry, which has grown significantly in recent years due to government initiatives and a sizable influx of venture funding. As a result, domestic companies like Agnikul, Bellatrix, Pixxel, and Skyroot have emerged at different stages of the space value chain. By 2030, the Indian spacetech market is expected to grow to a size of $77 billion, according to various media reports. Even though there were more agreements last year—14 in 2024 compared to 11 in 2023—the total amount of money raised by Indian spacetech businesses dropped 35% year over year to $81 million, according to the Indian Startup Funding Report 2024.

Two other Indian space businesses, in addition to Digantara, contributed satellites to SpaceX's Transporter-12 rocket, which took off from Vandenberg, California, in the United States. Together with ELEVATION-1, a satellite for the US-based Almagest Space Corporation that was entirely planned and produced by Hyderabad-based XDLINX Spacelabs, Bengaluru-based Pixxel launched the first three satellites of its Firefly constellation.

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StartupTalkyNitin Konde