New Delhi : When Indian space-tech startup Pixxel raised $25 million in March, it appeared to be modest fundraising by all standards except two. Firstly, it was the largest amount raised by any Indian space company; Second, this was the first time a foreign venture capital fund had invested in the Indian space industry.
However, Pixxel is an exception in the Indian private space sector, which has seen little interest from foreign funds.
Many Indian space-tech startups are in a somewhat uncomfortable position where they must work towards achieving space readiness (SR) before attracting large scale investments.
SR is a scale from one to nine used by most space agencies and companies around the world to understand how mature or efficient a company and its services are.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) defines SR level one as the concept of a basic business or application idea, and level nine, the highest level, when a startup is “space-proven” and a company has developed its products. After proving it is achieved. Through several demonstrations or flights to space. Because of this criterion, any new space mission always consists of multiple Technology Demonstration (TD) missions—whether for satellite deployment or rocket launch.
Pratip Mazumdar, co-founder and partner, Inflexor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, said the highest level that Indian startups have achieved in terms of space readiness is the final stage.
While no international body or any central organization assigns space readiness numbers to companies based on official descriptions from NASA and the European Space Agency, Pixxel will fall to level eight or the final level of the Readiness Scale. Industry stakeholders say startups such as Digantara and Dhruv will likely be at level seven of the readiness scale as they have launched both prototypes or tested satellites into space.
Pixxel’s founder and CEO, Awais Ahmed, said the company has launched only one satellite so far, but has started offering satellite-derived data to its early commercial customers. It will be ‘space proven’ once its service is available to all commercial customers around the world, which Ahmed said could begin as early as next month when it will be in space with the ISRO mission. sends another satellite.
“Once more startups start proving their technologies, the Indian market should be attractive enough to attract global investment,” Mazumdar said.
“While Indian enterprises have pitched ‘low cost’ value propositions in terms of the space operations that they are manufacturing, focusing only on the cost aspect will not be enough to attract the eye. As a result, global investors Let’s look at markets like the United States or the European Union, which have more favorable policies and regulations for investing in space ventures,” said Anupam Shukla, Space Sector Counsel and Partner at Pioneer Legal.
Delays in launch are a routine affair in the space sector due to various factors like prevailing weather conditions during launch, pre-launch technical glitches etc. For example, Pixel launched its ‘Shakuntala’ satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 1. While this launch was timely, it was believed to be the second Pixxel satellite to be deployed as part of its constellation. ‘Anand’, which was supposed to be Pixel’s first satellite in space, is yet to be launched as the company awaits the launch timeline for ISRO’s next PSLV mission.
According to investment tracker TraxN, India’s space sector has seen 54 funding rounds since the first publicly acclaimed Indian space startup, Team Indus, which raised its angel round in November 2013. However, in nine years, only $155 million has been raised. region.
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