India’s private space firms may be getting the revenue boost they hoped for: Thanks to geopolitical tensions, several countries have tapped them to build satellites as demand for space-based surveillance grows.
Bengaluru-based Ananth Technologies, a long-time engineering partner for the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), has been executing an order from Australia for defence surveillance satellites over the past year. Peer Digantara is also part of this contract under the Mission for Australia-India’s Technology, Research and Innovation or Maitri programme.
Norway, Hungary and Poland, besides nations from West Asia and the global south, are also engaging with multiple Indian space firms, including Adani Defence and Aerospace-backed Alpha Design.
Most of these countries do not have their own satellite programmes, but changing geopolitical alignments and global tensions have amplified the need for space surveillance. And while revenue generated from such projects has still not reached hundreds of millions of dollars, India’s friendly relations are offering local space startups an opportunity to drive growth through such partnerships.
Moreover, surveillance satellite giants in the US, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, focus mostly on large contracts, according to Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think-tank, Observer Research Foundation. Since most of the contracts coming India’s way range from $5-25 million per year, Giri said these “are too small for the American behemoths, but cumulatively could add up to a significant boost for India”.
Satellite assembly line
Ananth Technologies and Digantara will offer end-to-end design and manufacturing of satellites and provide surveillance data to Australia. While neither divulged the exact size of the deals, both said the multi-year pactsare leading to monetization of their business models in India.
“We have three satellite manufacturing and design engineering centres across Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, where we build and design high-resolution surveillance, imaging and earth observation satellites based on requirements from clients,” Subba Rao Pavuluri, chairman and managing director of Ananth Technologies, told Mint.
The company has the reputation to back it, having manufactured surveillance satellites for India. These are in orbit and operated by Isro.
In FY24, Ananth Technologies, incorporated in 1992, earned operating revenue of ₹270 crore, according to data from the ministry of corporate affairs.
Digantara, incorporated six years ago, earned ₹3.2 crore and projects its revenue to increase to ₹250 crore by FY27 on surveillance satellite data and manufacturing contracts. Over ₹100 crore of Digantara’s revenue growth is set to come from through its contract with India’s ministry of defence, Mint reported on 13 June.
Anirudh Sharma, chief executive of the Peak XV-backed startup, is also setting up the company’s own satellite assembly line. Mint visited the company’s headquarters in Bengaluru. The startup will offer satellite observation and data analytics services to paying customers.
“We’re currently working with other clients, too, including the government of India as well as interested parties from the European Union,” Sharma said. “There is an increasing demand for sovereign surveillance capabilities around the world, for which we are offering white-label services to various governments.”
Surveillance as a service
Beyond manufacturing for other nations, Indian space startups are looking to put their own surveillance satellites in orbit, and offer high-resolution surveillance data to countries. GalaxEye Space, a four-year-old, Chennai-headquartered startup, announced earlier this month that it will place its first, owned surveillance satellite in orbit as part of its business expansion plan.
“…the current rise in interest for surveillance satellites is also boosting our case for innovation—where we are placing a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (Sar) satellite that can observe the earth at up to 0.5 metres resolution,” said Suyash Singh, founder of GalaxEye. “We’re already having early-stage conversations with hundreds of clients, which is what spurred our decision to build this satellite. In the next six to eight months, we’ll offer a revenue projection for the coming years, launch the satellite in orbit, and raise funds for our next phase of operations.”
The company’s early-stage demand is largely coming from West Asia and the global south, Singh said.
One year ago, the government of Australia signed an $18-million contract with Isro’s commercial business unit, NewSpace India Limited (Nsil), to use its satellite launch services. LiveMint