Spacetech infrastructure startup Digantara raises $10M led by Peak XV Partners, others

Bengaluru-based spacetech startup Digantara has raised $10 million in a Series A1 funding round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) and Kalaari Capital, with participation from Global Brain, a venture capital firm based in Japan, Campus Fund, and the founders of IIFL Wealth. 

Digantara focuses on space situational awareness (SSA) and aims to advance its Space-Mission Assurance Platform (Space-MAP). Digantara's Space-MAP program primarily aims to ensure the safety of space operations by addressing the current limitations in tracking space debris in Earth's orbit. Presently, about 96% of the roughly one million objects in orbit remain unidentified, posing a potential threat to satellites and human missions.

With the newly raised capital, Digantara plans to deploy the initial phase of its space-based surveillance satellite constellation. The company also intends to expedite the development of its downstream SSA services, with the goal of deployment by the second quarter of 2024.

Digantara was founded in 2020 by Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat, and Tanveer Ahmed; Digantara said it is working on an end-to-end solution to address the challenges of space operations and situational awareness. In addition, the company has begun developing India's first commercial SSA optical observatory in Uttarakhand.

According to the company's statement, The observatory will track space debris as small as 10 cm in size orbiting Earth. It has also recently launched two missions serving as a space weather testbed.

"We will invest heavily in launching our space tech infrastructure to track previously unobservable objects and significantly increase data points. This will empower stakeholders with comprehensive insights for efficient decision-making in an increasingly complex space environment," said Anirudh Sharma.

“The team at Digantara is working towards creating the most advanced SSA data collection infrastructure. We believe that this will lead to significant capability in the life cycle of managing satellites, which is a rapidly growing market. We are thrilled to partner with Anirudh, Rahul and Tanveer on this journey.” Shailesh Lakhani, managing director, Peak XV Partners.

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