Spacetech in the spotlight: India's Path to Global Leadership India's space economy is projected to be worth USD 44 billion by 2033, up from USD 8.4 billion in 2022.

Courtesy ISRO, India has a lot to be proud of in the space sector. From missions to Mars and Moon to putting a record number of satellites in orbit, the government-run agency has broken several myths about an emerging country like India.

But beyond ISRO, there has not been much in the space program from India. At least, until a few years ago. Things are changing as a bunch of startups have emerged to tap into the space sector, which is poised to be USD 44 billion by 2033, according to a FICCI-EY report. As of 2022, India's space economy stood at USD 8.4 billion.

The projection, which seems plausible, will require a collective effort, including investments from the venture capitalists, support from the governments, and nurturing the requisite talent pool, among other initiatives.

Lt Gen AK Bhatt (retd), the Director General of the Indian Space Association (ISpA), says that India sits at the high table in the world, courtesy ISRO.

"And what ISRO has been doing has now been taken on by our industry and our startups," Bhatt said while participating in a panel discussion on spacetech at the Entrepreneur India Summit 2025.

Bhatt also highlighted some of the recent accomplishments by some Indian spacetech startups.

"And as of today, there are five startups who have made satellites and they are there in space. There are two startups who have done pre-orbital launches and definitely by next year, will have orbital launches. Their rockets will be launching satellites for India and the world," he added.

Bhatt further lauded India's private space players as they were trying to build applications to support Indians in all domains, ranging from agriculture, education, to health.

As mentioned above, India also needs to quickly build a talent pool that could be up for challenges in the fields of deeptech as well as spacetech.

Lt Col V Ramanathan, VP at SatSure, said that his company is looking for a talent pool that has domain expertise, hands-on experience, and energy to run the long distance. He also highlighted the longevity of such initiatives.

"... Space as an industry is not something which starts today and ends tomorrow. There is a lot of gestation period, research and development takes a lot of time. And in this, a person needs to have a long-term vision. In SatSure's case, we are ensuring that the people who join us as new trainees, as the people who come to us for their, you know, the freshers just out of college, whenever they are joining us, they are not just there with us as a workers, they are there as a talent pool. The aim is to now take them on permanently with us," he said during the panel discussion.

One of the challenges that Indian spacetech startups have faced is the reluctance of the VCs. Interestingly, funding in the spacetech sector declined 53% at USD 59 million raise in 2024 as compared to USD 128 million raise in the previous year, according to a Traxn report.

Inflexor Ventures VC Anush Prem explained that some VCs raise money from LPs and they have a fiduciary responsibility to give the money back. Though, he said, there are some VCs who are interested in supporting deeptech or spacetech kind of startups.

"... when you look at D2C brands, right, or FinTechs or companies like that, right, it has a much less gestation period and a much higher or much accelerated traction, right? You can burn a bunch of money, obviously investors' money, and gain a lot of traction within a couple of months. But that doesn't happen in deep tech or SpaceTech kind of companies, right? It requires a very long gestation cycle, right, often in multiple years," he said during the panel discussion.

Prem also noted that his firm had invested in Bellatrix Aerospace in 2018 and joined the latter's raise in multiple rounds, and that very recently the startup started to generate revenue.

"So you have to understand that when investors are looking to invest, most investors don't have that kind of patience. It's not because they don't want to, it's because they have a commitment towards their LPs," he added.

Asked about what it actually takes to build a spacetech startup, Krishanu Acharya, cofounder and CEO at SatSure, stressed the need for the right execution.

"So when we create a solution, a platform, we execute it in such a way that our customer remains sticky to it and they keep on coming back to us to utilize it and, you know, we don't go for them, to—to ask them to renew it or so. They rather come back and, you know, to us," he commented.