We’re excited to share that our portfolio company, Digantara, has raised a $50 million Series B round.

We congratulate Anirudh, Tanveer and Rahul and the entire Digantara team on this incredible milestone. Since our seed investment in 2021, the team has demonstrated deep commitment to their core mission – making space more accessible and building a comprehensive space situational awareness & surveillance platform.

The New Space Economy and the Indian Space sector

From commercializing the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) for space-based services to helping us capture the imagination of becoming a multi-planetary species, several space startups have emerged over the last decade. These startups have been building and innovating across the cycle, with sub-themes including rocket launchers, satellite manufacturing, ground station, ancillary services, and in-space manufacturing.

Morgan Stanley estimates that the global space industry could surge to $1T by 2040. In fact, the number of satellite launches to space has been rapidly increasing, and is predicted to grow exponentially. As of early 2021, there were an estimated 4.3K satellites in space. SpaceX’s Starlink alone, arguably the most ambitious space-based project, has permission from the US FCC to deploy 12K satellites in orbit. Additionally, it has already filed for requesting permission to deploy 30K more satellites.

In India, ISRO has established its credibility as one of the most efficient and accomplished space agencies globally and has built an ecosystem of suppliers and fabricators around it. ISRO has consistently delivered the most capital-efficient space missions while also building its credibility in space mission reliability. With the increased privatization of the Indian space sector, multiple startups have emerged that can now leverage ISRO’s expertise to build from India for the world.

Indian startups are trying to innovate across sub-sectors, from remote sensing and space-based services to disrupting traditional space launch systems, building and designing ground station systems, and satellite manufacturing.

Just as India was able to skip the landline and telephone generation by directly adopting mobile phones, space-based services provide a similar opportunity to do the same with telecommunication and geo-imaging. Using space-based services as a catalyst, India can accelerate internet access and digital connectivity in the remotest of areas. At the same time, the next wave of efficiency and intelligence in agriculture, weather, mapping, tracking, disaster management, and mineralogy can be driven by geo-imaging systems.

Space Situational Awareness and Making Commercial Space Activity Viable

One major concern around the growing traffic and race towards commercializing space is debris, which is expected to increase significantly.

It is estimated that there are around 34K debris objects that are greater than 10 cm in size, about 900K objects that are between 1–10 cm, and over 128M space debris particles that are smaller than 1 cm in diameter. While debris of this size may seem harmless in isolation, in LEO, where orbital speeds can go over 27,000 kilometers per hour, they can have devastating effects if they collide against an active satellite or a space vehicle, making them a real problem.

Therefore, robust space situational awareness needs to be developed, which will allow for greater visibility and awareness that is critical for safe commercial missions to space.

Why Kalaari Invested in Digantara

Digantara is the first Indian company and one of the few globally working on developing space-based situational awareness. It has developed a patented LiDAR-based space debris monitor that can track objects up to 1 cm in diameter. So far, this is something that no other existing ground-based system has been able to do.

Digantara is building a comprehensive data stack that will provide end-to-end information for object tracking and space weather conditions. This data will not only enable space companies to track and avoid debris particles, but will also be critical for mission planning and orbit determination. And, as more LEO-based space services get activated, robust situational data will enable dense constellation networks to operate seamlessly.

When we first met the founders Anirudh, Rahul, and Tanveer, they had already spent a significant amount of time in the space ecosystem. They studied and built satellite components and learned various aspects such as satellite manufacturing and mission planning. They have since gone on to understand how the commercialization of space is unfolding by interacting with multiple companies and industry experts. At one such space conference, they realized how serious the debris problem is and how it could hamper the vision to a truly open space. Ever since then, Digantara has focused on building solutions to develop object tracking capabilities.

We believe Digantara is building the infrastructural layer and space awareness capabilities that will be the enabler for all subsectors in their vision to commercialize space.

‍Progress since our seed investment in 2021

With the rise of the new space economy, there has been a growing interest in space as the next frontier – both for space-based services as well as for national security. However, to support and fuel this growth, robust capabilities in space domain awareness will become indispensable. Comprehensive understanding of space objects, their trajectories and space weather will be critical to ensure efficient and safe space mission operations. These capabilities are also fast becoming indisposable for national security, and Digantara’s multi-modal stack sets new standards in sovereign space intelligence and defining how nations manage, protect, and defend assets across domains

Since our investment in 2021, the company has evolved moving from their vision on paper to validating their first space asset in January ’25. The company today operates both land- and space-based sensors, offering multi-modal intelligence on space weather and domain awareness.

Digantara is quickly establishing itself as a global leader in space domain awareness. Their electro-optical and LiDAR-based sensors are setting a global first in space-based surveillance and object detection.

The Roadmap Ahead

With the fresh infusion of capital, the company is planning to expand its network of ground and space-based sensor stack, increasing fidelity and establishing themselves as the leader in space surveillance and domain awareness. Through 2026-27, Digantara will look to expand its fleet of electro-optical and LiDAR satellites engineered for space-based space surveillance and an expanding network of ground-based sensors that enables persistent observation across critical theatres of operations.

With operations across India, Singapore and the United States, Digantara is focused on building a global leader in space domain awareness and surveillance.

Co-Founder Anirudh Sharma says:

“In the last 4 years of partnership we have had with Kalaari, they have acted like long-term partners where they continued trusting our vision and gave the right guidance as and when required.”

Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, Vani Kola says:

“From the very beginning, Digantara stood out for the clarity of its vision and the depth of its technical ambition. Long before space surveillance became a global priority, the team was already building the foundational infrastructure required to make space operations safe, scalable, and resilient. Watching Anirudh, Tanveer, Rahul, and the team build patiently from first principles has reinforced our belief in their execution capability, long-term thinking, and commitment to solving a mission-critical global problem. Digantara’s journey reflects the kind of deeptech innovation we believe India can lead on, and we’re proud to partner with them as they scale globally.”

Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm’s ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.

If you are an entrepreneur (or know an entrepreneur) building a company in the Deeptech/Spacetech space, please write to us at deeptech@kalaari.com

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