Spacetech startup GalaxEye has raised Rs 55 crore or $6.5 million in its ongoing Series A funding round led by Mela Ventures and existing investor Speciale Invest.
Drone-tech startup ideaForge, Navam Capital, Anicut Capital, Faad Capital, and Rainmatter Capital were some of the other participants. As per the company, the round is to conclude by September though they didn’t disclose the total sum they’re seeking.
The fresh proceeds will be deployed in team expansion, and the launch of the startup’s first satellite-Drishti Mission, by July 2025. Earlier, the launch was set to take place in the September quarter of 2023 but couldn’t come through because of numerous complications such as the delay in vendors supplying the components. The fresh funding would help overcome such shortcomings.
IIT-Madras incubated GalaxEye was founded in 2021 by Suyash Singh, Denil Chawda, Pranit Mehta, Kishan Thakkar, and Rakshit Bhatt. It claims to be building a first-of-its-kind multi-sensor earth observation satellite and domestic micro-satellites with data-fusion features. had raised $3.5 million in its seed funding round in 2022.
The Bengaluru-based startup is also focusing on offering its data-as-a-service solutions to other sectors as the CEO Singh stated that the startup is taking note of the government’s policies to promote public-private partnerships in the indigenous space-tech industry. GalaxEye signed an agreement with Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) to produce a multi-sensor fusion processing system. The system will be deployed in miniature satellites for the Indian Air Force (IAF), capable of carrying loads up to 150 kg.
While Singh anticipates the experience of Mela Ventures’ managing partners Parthasarathy NS and Krishnakumar Natarajan (founders of IT company Mindtree) valuable for GalaxEye’s growth, Natarajan commented that the Singh-led startup’s MSI/SAR technology would effectively cater with real-time visibility and reduction in response time for sectors in the likes of defence, agriculture, insurance, and maritime.
GalaxEye and ideaForge signed an agreement in September 2023 to jointly work on an unmanned aerial vehicle with Foliage Penetration Radar. The product is in its final stage and is expected to be launched in the market soon. Additionally, the latter had picked a minority stake for Rs 8.28 crore in the former as part of its ongoing Series A Funding.
The indigenous space-tech market is rapidly expanding with startups such as Agnikul Cosmos, Pixxel, and Dhruva along with GalaxEye, and is estimated to become a $77 billion opportunity by the end of the decade.
