According to a report released on Tuesday, India’s spacetech industry received record-breaking funding of $126 million in 2023, up 7% from $118 million raised in 2022 and a staggering 235% from $37.6 million in 2021.
As of 2024, the sector has received $10.8 million in funding.
According to statistics provided by market intelligence firm Tracxn, the spacetech sector has been seeing an upward trend despite a global slowdown in funding, powered by significant inventions and extensive government support.
Over one hundred spacetech startups exist, most of which were established during the last five years. The industry is anticipated to benefit greatly from the Rs 1,000 crore allocated in the Union Budget, which would encourage more investment and entrepreneurship in the upcoming months.
The nation now has 55 operational space assets, including satellites for earth observation, meteorology, and communication.
Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn, stated, “The major funding and strategic investments we’re seeing now are setting the stage for India to become a major player in the global space industry.”
According to Singh, the key to accelerating this growth and making India a preeminent hub for space exploration and technology will be to combine strong early-stage investment with encouraging government policy.
Of the $126 million raised in total, $120 million came from early-stage rounds in 2023. This is a significant rise over the $114 million in 2022, or 5% more.
Early-stage funding has reached a total of $8.5 million as of 2024.
The amount of funding for the seed stage has also increased significantly, rising by 24% from $4.3 million in 2022 to $5.3 million in 2023.
The paper stated that although early-stage and seed-stage investment has increased, late-stage finance has not yet been provided to the emerging ecosystem for private sector involvement in Indian Space Tech businesses.
With total funding of $99.8 million, Skyroot Aerospace is the most well-funded active space tech startup in India. Pixxel comes in second with $71.7 million, and Agnikul comes in third with $61.5 million.
In this market, not a single other startup has raised more than $50 million.
Even with the active capital market, there haven’t been any acquisitions in 2024.
The lone acquisition to date is Arya’s 2022 acquisition of Prakshep, a company that provides satellite imagery to the agriculture sector.
Bengaluru tops the list of Indian spacetech industry funding cities, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai.
