{"id":35875,"date":"2025-07-31T13:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/35875\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:41:07","slug":"reliance-in-advanced-talks-to-lead-50-million-raise-in-spacetech-startup-digantara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/35875\/","title":{"rendered":"Reliance in advanced talks to lead $50 million raise in spacetech startup Digantara"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reliance Industries<\/a> is in advanced discussions to lead a $50 million (around Rs 430 crore) funding round<\/a> in spacetech startup<\/a> Digantara Research & Technologies<\/a>, which is focused on space situational awareness<\/a> and surveillance, people familiar with the matter told ET. Existing investors, including Peak XV Partners, are also expected to participate in the round.<\/p>\n

The funding would mark a significant bet on India\u2019s emerging space surveillance sector that is gaining traction amid increasing global geopolitical tensions<\/a> and rising defence spending<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cReliance has evaluated multiple startups in the spacetech segment. It is looking at companies building novel solutions in the sector. Its talks with Digantara are at an advanced stage,\u201d a person aware of these discussions said.<\/p>\n

Digantara develops systems that track and monitor objects in Earth\u2019s orbit \u2013 critical technology as both civilian and military interest in space grows. In March this year, the company launched a satellite<\/a> capable of tracking debris as small as 5 centimetres, and it currently provides services to defence agencies in India and the US, according to a person aware of the company\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

Also Read: ET Startup Awards 2023: Digantara wins Best on Campus category<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the volatility in global geopolitics, every country is focused on having its own indigenous sovereign solutions that can be controlled in times of crisis. That\u2019s where the opportunity lies for startups like Digantara,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n

Digantara plans to establish a constellation of 12-13 surveillance satellites by the end of 2026. So far, it has launched three, including one as part of the planned constellation. \u201cA large part of the funds raised will be utilised toward the capital expenditure for this infrastructure buildout,\u201d the person cited above said.<\/p>\n

Also Read: ETSA 2023 Best on Campus Winner | Space company Digantara has enough in the tank to soar higher<\/a><\/p>\n

Founded by students Anirudh Sharma (CEO) and Rahul Rawat (COO), who teamed up with aerospace engineer Tanveer Ahmed (CTO), Digantara was adjudged winner of the Best on Campus category<\/a> at the ET Startup Awards in 2023.<\/p>\n

While Digantara\u2019s current focus is on defence contracts, it is also eyeing commercial opportunities in space situational awareness. In February, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit to the US, the startup announced the opening of a dedicated manufacturing and operations facility there. At the time, Digantara had said that it expects to make $25-30 million (Rs 220-260 crore) in revenue over a two to three-year timeframe following its US expansion.<\/p>\n

The company had previously raised $10 million<\/a> in 2023 from Peak XV and Kalaari Capital, and another $2 million<\/a> in February 2024 from Aditya Birla Ventures and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi). Notably, Kalaari Capital had backed Digantara from its fourth fund, in which Reliance Industries<\/a> is an anchor limited partner<\/a> (LP), or investor in the fund. <\/p>\n

Reliance Industries and Digantara founder Sharma did not respond to queries from ET. A Peak XV Partners spokesperson said, \u201cThere are no comments from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to spacetech, investor interest in startups building defence solutions in India has picked up. In June, military drone maker Raphe mPhibr raised $100 million<\/a> in funding led by Silicon Valley investor General Catalyst.<\/p>\n

In October last year, the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 1,000-crore venture capital fund<\/a> to back 30-35 space startups over five years to catalyse private investment in the sector. Satellite imagery firm Pixxel raised $24 million<\/a> from M&G Catalyst and Glade Brook, with participation from Google and Lightspeed. Besides, several other younger startups such as InspeCity, Orbitt Space, OrbitAID and Inbound Aerospace, have raised smaller rounds this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reliance Industries is in advanced discussions to lead a $50 million (around Rs 430 crore) funding round in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,21257,21252,4203,21255,5533,21258,21251,21256,21253,21254,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-35875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-defence-spending","10":"tag-digantara-research-technologies","11":"tag-entrepreneurship","12":"tag-funding-round","13":"tag-geopolitical-tensions","14":"tag-indian-space-startups","15":"tag-reliance-industries","16":"tag-satellite-surveillance","17":"tag-space-situational-awareness","18":"tag-spacetech-startup","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}