India, which until a few years ago was seen as shying away from splurging on space missions, recorded a historic 2022 with its first private rocket launch by Skyroot and multiple other satellite launches, grabbing eyeballs the world over.
Imperative to mention that behind this is the government’s willingness and trust in the country’s private spacetech players, who have massive backing from the Centre in all key areas ranging from funding, technology access, and infrastructure support, among others.
In July last year, the GST Council set the launchpad for spacetech startups with a 0% GST regime. During the 50th meeting of the Council, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted that the initiative was aimed at fostering emerging startups in the rapidly growing spacetech sector.
The buzz in this burgeoning sector has been such that last year alone as many as 100 spacetech startups got registered with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Further, Microsoft joined hands with ISRO in January 2023 to fuel the growth of spacetech startups in India.
The growth has come on the back of approximately $233 Mn in funding raised by India’s spacetech startups across 30+ deals between 2014 and July 2023, according to data compiled by Inc42.
According to Inc42’s Indian Spacetech Startup Landscape & Market Opportunity Report 2023, the spacetech sector is estimated to reach a market size of $77 Bn by 2030.
