Digantara, a space technology startup focused on space situational awareness, on Friday inaugurated its global headquarters equipped with a command and control centre and clean rooms. The new facility, spread over 25,000 square feet in Hebbal, Bengaluru, will serve as a satellite assembly, integration and test (AIT) facility. The Bengaluru-based startup is currently planning to launch a constellation of space-based surveillance satellites.
Enhance your technical skills with high-value skills courses
Offered University Courses Website Indian School of Business Professional Certificate in Product Management Visit Indian School of Business ISB Product Management Visit MIT xPROMIT Technology Leadership and Innovation Visit These satellites aim to address data insufficiency from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.
“Our new facility will not only increase our innovation capabilities to build cutting edge sensors but also position us as a platform provider to facilitate operations in space,” Sharma added.
The Peak XV Partners-backed startup currently employs a total of 45 staff, co-founder and CEO Anirudh Sharma told ET.
The inauguration ceremony, held late in the evening, was attended by S. Somanath, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and space situational awareness experts from 10 countries.
Find the stories that interest you
The command and control centre will help in monitoring and managing space traffic, ensuring safety and sustainability of satellite operations across the globe for Digantara’s customers. Currently, the startup has contracts with two customers outside India and one with a defence-related government agency in India, Sharma told ET.
The company plans to launch a total of 40 satellites, backed by the Space Mission Assurance Platform (Space-MAP), which uses a multi-modal data pool to provide data sets and orbital insights to its customers.
Digantara also operates STARS (Space Threat Assessment and Response Suite), a proprietary military defense suite designed to enhance national sovereign space capabilities.
In February, the startup raised $2 million from Aditya Birla Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Aditya Birla Group, and Sidhvi Venture Capital of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Bank of India (Sidhvi), respectively.
With this capital injection, the startup’s Series A funding stage final closed at $12 million. In June 2023, Digantara raised $10 million led by Peak XV Partners.
Digantara was founded by Sharma, Rahul Rawat and Tanveer Ahmed in 2018. The company had raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital in July 2021.
