Digantara, New-age Space Cartographers is now ready to deploy $10 million investment to kickstart the implementation of its groundbreaking space-based surveillance satellite constellation. The company’s ambitious Space-MAP program aims to revolutionize space situational awareness (SSA) by addressing the current limitations in tracking space debris orbiting Earth.
According to statistics, a staggering 96% of the approximately one million objects in orbit remain unidentified, posing a significant threat to both satellites and human missions. With Digantara’s innovative approach, this imminent danger will be effectively mitigated.
The Bengaluru based Digantara plans to utilize the funding to accelerate the development of its downstream SSA services, with a target deployment scheduled for the second quarter of 2024. The startup intends to invest heavily in launching its cutting-edge space tech infrastructure, enabling the tracking of previously unobservable objects and significantly increasing the collection of data points.
Anirudh Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Digantara, expressed his excitement about the project, stating, “This will empower stakeholders with comprehensive insights for efficient decision-making in an increasingly complex space environment.”
Digantara which claims to safeguard the future of space operations through comprehensive space situational awareness infrastructure has already made significant strides in the field, having secured $2.5 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital in 2021. The recent funding round, known as Series A1, was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) and Kalaari Capital. Notable participants included Japan-based VC firm Global Brain, Campus Fund, and the founders of IIFL Wealth.
Digantara set to create most advanced SSA Collection Infrastructure
Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director of Peak XV Partners, praised Digantara’s efforts, saying, “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.”
Headquartered in Bengaluru and with a presence in Singapore, Digantara was founded in 2020 by Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat, and Tanveer Ahmed. The company boasts a talented team of 30 engineers whose expertise spans the fields of astrodynamics, photonics, and space weather.
Aside from its space surveillance satellite constellation, Digantara is also developing an end-to-end solution to tackle the challenges of space operations and situational awareness. The startup is currently working on building India’s first commercial SSA optical observatory in Uttarakhand, dedicated to tracking space debris as small as 10 cm in size.
In addition, Digantara recently launched two missions that served as a space weather testbed, demonstrating the versatility and potential of its technology.
With the successful A series $10 Million funding round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) and Kalaari Capital. Japan-based VC firm Global Brain, Campus Fund, and the founders of IIFL Wealth also participated in the round. The space tech startup aims to advance its Space-Mission Assurance Platform (Space-MAP).
