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Spacetech startup GalaxEye to build second satellite with 0.5 m resolution
The satellite has near 0.5 metre resolution for quality insights needed in defence and other critical sectors. GalaxEye's first satellite, Mission Drishti, is scheduled for launch later this year. Drishti will have a resolution of 1.25 metres and serves as a milestone in demonstrating the company's proprietary technology stack, including a proven sensor system and data processing pipeline tested over 500 drone flights and spaceflight missions.
GalaxEye's second satellite will deliver improved spatial resolution and reduce revisit time to under three days, significantly enhancing the responsiveness and utility of its constellation. 'Building on the experience from our first satellite — set to launch later this year — and the evolving needs of our defence customers, we're thrilled to take the next big step in scaling our constellation and deepening our mission impact,' said Suyash Singh, founder and chief executive officer of GalaxEye.
'What excites us most is that this second satellite will be entirely built in-house. As we move forward, we're committed to greater vertical integration—working closely with resilient partners across the satellite supply chain.'
The second satellite offers real-time, all-weather capabilities that will serve sectors like disaster response, urban security, maritime awareness and risk intelligence, said GalaxEye.
'As early backers of GalaxEye, it's incredibly rewarding to see them announce their second satellite. The dual-use potential of their technology — spanning defence, national security, and commercial sectors — is truly exciting,' said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at Speciale Invest.
With the launch targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, GalaxEye is undergoing mission concept and preliminary design reviews, and is strategically positioning to expand into high-priority international defence markets including the United States, West Asia and Europe.
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Mint
5 days ago
- Mint
Data creates a revenue path for India's fledgling space startups
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The race for satellite data marks the coming of age of India's space startups since the sector was significantly opened up to private players five years ago. The ecosystem has gradually matured, with satellite firms transitioning to commercial models. India's space economy is projected to generate $44 billion in annual revenue by 2033, according to estimates by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space). Earth observation and data-related services could account for nearly 40% of it. Such a scale would come from customers who repeatedly purchase satellite data, according to Devroop Dhar, managing director and cofounder of management consulting firm Primus Partners. He cited examples of subscription access for change detection in crops, alerts for maritime anomalies, risk scoring for insurers and more. 'It is less about owning a piece of space and more about embedding space into day-to-day business decisions." 'The question is no longer what you captured, but how it helps someone make a decision," said Dhar, suggesting that monetization has changed from earlier when it was centred around payloads, launch contracts or tech demonstrators, mostly to government clients or for niche commercial engagements. Queries sent to Pixxel and Digantara did not immediately elicit a response. Digantara's chief executive officer Anirudh Sharma told Mint previously that the company is setting up an assembly line in response to rising demand from governments worldwide over the past six months, as more of them look to build their own space defence and surveillance systems and seek direct access to satellite data. Technological advances and a shift in strategic focus are propelling this transition. As satellite hardware shrinks and onboard processing becomes more advanced, space startups are no longer just focused on being satellite manufacturers or simply supplying raw data to vendors. They call it an "orbit to insight loop" to supply large volumes of processed data at low latencies as their core business model. Launch service providers, too, see data driving demand. Agnikul Cosmos and Skyroot Aerospace have completed solitary sub-orbital demonstrator missions—these do not enter the earth's orbit and serve as proof of technology only. The startups are in talks with data-focused clients such as agri-tech companies, fleet monitoring players and analytics firms. 'Our plan is to scale to a launch every two weeks," said Srinath Ravichandran, cofounder, Agnikul Cosmos. 'Even at 50 launches a year, I'm barely at 10% of the market demand. Our order pipeline already indicates clear dominance of satellite payloads increasing due to the demand for data—about 35-40% are imaging satellites." Ravichandran said the demand for data is coming "from hedge funds trying to predict urbanization, land utilization and betting on real estate, to city corporations using high-resolution imagery to track urban trends". Naga Bharath Daka, cofounder of Skyroot Aerospace, said that satellite manufacturers striking early deals with the firm for 'putting GPUs in satellites to process data in orbit. Many are downlinking only insights, not raw images." 'Many large firms across end-user applications are now investing in having their own satellites to gain direct insight," he said. 'As more operational players enter the market, booking a launch could soon become as simple as booking a cab at short notice." Earlier this month, Mint reported the rise of space-based surveillance as a major business stream for Indian space firms, with clients willing to pay up to $100 per square kilometre per week from a single satellite and providing scope for multi-million-dollar satellite data contracts on an annualized basis. However, to reap all the benefits, these startups will have to invest heavily early on to put multiple satellites in orbit—without which uninterrupted satellite data is difficult to procure. 'There can be no substitute for in-orbit satellites," said Sreeram Ananthasayanam, partner at consulting firm Deloitte India. 'You need a certain number of satellites to improve latency. In other words, demand and capital are akin to the perennial chicken and egg problem, plaguing several deep technology sectors."
Mint
25-07-2025
- Mint
Yali Capital raises $104 million in debut deep-tech fund
Yali Capital, a deep tech-focused venture capital firm, has closed its ₹ 893 crore (~$104 million) maiden fund. The firm had set out to raise ₹ 500 crore with a ₹ 310 crore greenshoe option but managed to raise more than that from its limited partners, which the founders believe is a sign that India's appetite for deep tech is growing. In fact, the firm raised 78% of its maiden fund from Indian firms and individuals, while the rest was raised from outside sources. Yali Capital's investor base includes corporate entities like Infosys Ltd, Qualcomm Ventures, Tata AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd, Madhusudhan Kela's Singularity Fund of Funds, Kris Gopalakrishnan's family office Pratithi Investments and notable individuals like ideaForge founders Ankit Mehta and Rahul Singh. 'The involvement of family offices has been a significant tailwind,' said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at deep-tech-focused venture capital firm Speciale Invest. 'Their longer capital horizon does make them good partners for deep tech founders. Many are moving beyond traditional sectors, actively co-investing in batteries, space, dual-use defense applications, and more.' Overall, Yali Capital is bullish on six sectors within deep tech: chip design, aerospace and surveillance, robotics, genomics, artificial intelligence, and smart manufacturing. The firm is allocating 50% of the fund to chip design and aerospace, while the other 50% will go towards the remaining four sectors mentioned above. The firm's cheque sizes will range from $2 million to $10 million. 'We're allocating 70% of the fund towards early stage (pre-seed, seed and Series A) investments and 30% will go towards late stage (Series D and beyond) companies from the fund,' Yali Capital's founding managing partner Ganapathy Subramaniam told Mint in an interview. He founded the firm with Mathew Cyriac, the former co-head of Blackstone India PE, which managed $3 billion in assets. The $104 million fund is the largest deep tech-focused fund to close so far this year. According to private company data platform Venture Intelligence, Endiya Partners and Triton Fund have raised $92 million and $14 million, respectively, in 2025 for their new deep tech-focused funds. Other than these two, there are five other firms working on raising capital for the sector, including Speciale Invest ($35 million), Mela Ventures ($117 million) and IIMA-CIE's Bharat Innovation Fund II, which is targeting a $150 million fund. India has only about 50 or so deep tech-focused venture capital firms, according to data from market research and data platform Tracxn. The largest deep-tech deals happened in 2023, Venture Intelligence data showed. Hyperspectral satellite imaging firm Pixxel raised the most at $36 million, followed by drone startup NewSpace at $33 million and AgniKul Cosmos at $25 million that year. Yali believes that the government's 2021 Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme to boost semiconductor chip design will help push more and more startups in the chip design and surveillance sectors. 'The DLI scheme is crucial to attract talent back to India to build an Indian chip company. The scheme has a very important role to play,' said Subramaniam. One of Yali Capital's investments, C2i Semiconductors, a fabless chip company, received DLI approval from the ministry of electronics and information technology earlier in January. For deep-tech firms such as Yali Capital, entering at the seed and pre-seed stage allows them to exit companies having made a large return on their investment. 'We believe that India's deep tech ecosystem has matured and, as a result, exit cycles have also shifted. An exit in 7-8 years is highly possible,' Subramaniam said. 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Business Standard
23-07-2025
- Business Standard
Inbound Aerospace raises $1 mn pre-seed round led by Speciale Invest
Inbound Aerospace, a space technology startup incubated by Indian Institute of Technology Madras, has raised more than $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest and participation from Piper Serica. The company is developing autonomous and reusable re-entry vehicles for in-orbit experiments, microgravity experiments, and commercial space research. It was founded by Aravind I B, Vishal Reddy, and Abhijit Bhutey in 2025. Inbound will use the funding for developing re-entry spacecraft, 'validating key sub-systems, and achieving critical design review milestones', it said. The company's technology is 'uniquely positioned' for microgravity infrastructure as the International Space Station (ISS) nears decommissioning in 2030. (Microgravity is not a complete absence of gravity, but rather a state of continuous freefall, commonly experienced by astronauts and equipment aboard orbiting spacecraft.) 'Microgravity environments are extremely hard to recreate on Earth. Our spacecraft is designed to enable cost-effective, repeatable, and safe return of payloads conducting in-orbit experiments and manufacturing — a capability that's critical to unlocking the next wave of growth in the space economy,' said Aravind, cofounder and chief executive officer of Inbound Aerospace. 'We believe re-entry vehicles will become foundational infrastructure for the microgravity economy. Inbound's deep technology ambition spanning autonomy, material science, and systems engineering is bold and timely. We're backing this team because they are not just thinking of access to space, but access back from space, which is equally critical for a sustainable orbital economy," said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest. This marks Speciale Invest's sixth investment in space tech, reinforcing its position as a leading early-stage investor in India's new-space movement. With the Government of India's Bio3E policy (2024) and the growing interest in space-enabled pharma, biotech, and material science research, Inbound's re-entry vehicles could become key enablers of in-orbit experimentation and commercial-scale manufacturing. Inbound was the only Indian finalist at Japan's S-Booster 2025, a prestigious space-business idea competition hosted by the cabinet office of Japan. It aims to launch its first re-entry multi-use variable-gravity platform mission by the first quarter of 2028.
