GalaxEye Space raises $3.5 million in funding from Speciale Invest, Zerodha's Nithin Kamath, others

GalaxEye Space, an IIT-Madras-incubated space tech startup, announced on December 15 that it has raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Speciale Invest, a deep-tech venture capital firm, and a clutch of investors including Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath and EaseMyTrip CEO Prashant Pitti.

Other investors who participated in the round include Artha India Ventures, Veda VC, Anicut Capital, Upsparks, and a consortium of entrepreneurs including Abhishek Goyal (Founder/CEO of Tracxn) and Ganapathy Subramaniam (Partner at Celesta Capital).

With the fresh funding, the startup aims to hire talent and accelerate the launch of its multi-sensor satellite for earth observation.

The funding will also help the startup's plans to launch its satellite at the end of 2023 and then commercialise its operations, Suyash Singh, co-founder and CEO of GalaxEye Space told Moneycontrol.

This funding comes at a time when the space tech sector in India has gained significant momentum, fueled by Hyderabad-based space tech startup Skyroot Aerospace, which became the country's first private player to launch for space.

Dhruva Space, another Hyderabad-based startup, recently launched their Thybolt satellites aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV-C54.

GalaxEye Space patented Drishti, a camera that fuses multiple sensors to produce accurate imagery, last year. It intends to disrupt the earth observation industry by creating unique datasets using the technology integrated on a satellite.

These datasets have applications in detecting changes in various kinds of infrastructure, tackling natural disasters and so on.

“Next year is crucial for us, as we aspire to reach space with our satellite and become the leader in multi-sensor imaging for the industry, " Singh said, adding that they will seek additional funding later.

“GalaxEye is one of the unique companies with the vision to democratise access to space for the small satellite market. Their team has a distinctive mix of domain strength and tenacity that will get them to space, making India self-reliant. This investment aligns with our vision of backing visionary founders with disruptive companies to solve global problems via tech innovations,” said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest.

GalaxEye was founded in 2020 by a group of five Indian Institute of Technology Madras students who previously collaborated as part of Team Avishkar Hyperloop, an IIT-M student competition team that qualified as the only Asian Finalist at the SpaceX Hyperloop Competition 2019.

It previously raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest in May 2021. This investment aided in the completion of proof of concept and prototype development and demonstration of its Drishti sensors.

As of now, the start-up said that it has partnerships and commercial contracts with organizations in the space tech ecosystem, including US-based space software provider Antaris. The company has also submitted a proposal to IN-SPACe seeking support from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).