ISC 2022 Announces iDEX 75 Space Challenges To Foster Indian Spacetech Startups

The India Space Congress 2022 (ISC 2022) has announced the iDEX 75 Space Challenges to foster spacetech startups in India. The three-day-long event is being organised by the Satcom Industry Association of India (SIA-India).

iDEX 75 Space Challenges was first announced by PM Modi during the Defence Expo, in partnership with Microsoft and iDEX to extend Founders Hub benefits to shortlisted startups.

As part of the programme, 15 selected startups would apply to Founders Hub and receive up to $150K worth of free Azure credits. The startups would also be eligible to participate in a mentorship programme.

The ISC 2022 would also allow five finalists to pitch their ideas at a dedicated session at the three-day event. On October 27, the startups will pitch their ideas to an elite panel at the session ‘Pitch Right for Skyrocketing Startups’.

The India Space Congress 2022 is supported by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), Department of Telecom (DoT), Defence Ministry (MoD) and the NITI Aayog.

Anil Prakash, DG, SIA-India, said, “SIA-India welcomes these engagements to help start-ups to launch their ambition to the next orbit with sure chances of success. With iDEX and Microsoft onboard, we look forward to the beginning of a partnership that will reap benefits to the deep tech space start-ups. These alliances will work towards fostering, incubating and hand-holding promising startups.”

According to SIA-India, ISC 2022 will allow stakeholders to discuss business models, open dialogue and talk about regulatory challenges and learnings from other countries while generating interest from new entrepreneurs.

India’s spacetech segment is heating up as more and more companies, both homegrown and foreign, come to Indian shores. 

Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s satellite broadband company Starlink said that it would be applying for the required licences to operate in India, competing with Airtel-backed OneWeb and Jio’s satellite broadband arm.

Apart from satellite broadband, there are many other use cases in spacetech, from building rockets to developing propulsion systems to satellites, navigation, remote sensing and so on. Some of the prominent Indian spacetech startups include Skyroot, Pixxel, Agnikul, SatSure and others.

In May, the government said that over 55 spacetech startups had been registered with ISRO over the past two years.

Following the success of SpaceX and other spacetech companies across the world, India’s spacetech segment is also gearing up to develop use cases to make going to space easier and cheaper.

The government and concerned agencies recognise the importance of spacetech in India and have therefore been working to generate more interest in the field.

Recently, media reports cited ISRO’s chief S Somanath as stating, “The whole world is looking at India as an inspirational place and it is wonderful to see what is happening in India, especially in the space sector, with the startup ecosystem.”

According to an Inc42 analysis, India’s commercial spacetech segment is set to grow to $77 Bn by 2030. For many spacetech companies, India might provide the scale they need.