SUMMARY
The round was led by Speciale Invest and co-led by Antler India and Veda VC
Founded in mid-2022, InspeCity aims to build the first city in a suitable orbit between Earth and the Moon, addressing the problem of resource scarcity on the Earth
The startup wants to utilise the funds to further develop InspeCity's technology and expand its team
Aiming to build the first city in a suitable orbit between Earth and the moon, spacetech startup InspeCity has raised $1.5 Mn in a pre-seed funding round led by deeptech investor Speciale Invest.
The funding round, which was co-led by Antler India and Veda VC, also saw participation from Anicut Capital, DeVC India, among other investors.
Founded in mid-2022 by Tausif Shaikh and Arindrajit Chowdhury, InspeCity is building in-orbit servicing and deorbiting products.
The startup’s vision is to address the problem of resource scarcity on Earth. It is currently developing enabling technologies for building such cities, with autonomous robotic platforms, the technology that allows it to service satellites in all orbits.
With the fresh capital, the startup wants to demonstrate its technology for in-orbit servicing by showing that a defunct satellite can be docked with a vehicle for life-extension and deorbiting activities (VEDA) on an air-bearing platform. It also wants to utilise the funds to develop InspeCity’s technology further and expand its team.
“This investment will tremendously help us further develop our technology for in-orbit servicing and autonomous robotic platforms. Our vision is to create a new economy in space and build human habitats that transcend the limitations of our current planetary systems,” Arindrajit Chowdhury, the CEO of Inspecity, said.
Previously, InspeCity raised $183K from the iDEX platform for the development of micropropulsion systems for cubesats. The company has also received a grant of $12.2K from TIH Foundation at IIT Bombay for technological support to develop an inter-satellite link.
Over the past two years, India has seen a major jump in spacetech innovations. A number of startups such as Agnikul, Skyroot, Digantara, Pixxel, and SatSure, among others, have also received investors’ attention.
What could be termed as a major achievement in the spacetech space, Hyderabad-based spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace, last year, became the first private Indian company to launch a rocket into space. The startup successfully launched its Vikram-S rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The Indian Space Policy, 2023, has further provided a much-needed boost to the segment and enhanced the role of startups and other private entities working in space.
With the policy, the Centre aims to provide ‘regulatory certainty’ to the spacetech arena for enabling a thriving space ecosystem.
According to Inc42, the homegrown commercial spacetech market is projected to reach a market size of $77 Bn by 2030.
