Aditya Birla Group’s VC arm and Govt of India’s SIDBI back Digantara - India’s leading Space Situational Awareness company in its $12 Million Series A Funding round

Digantara, India’s leading Space Situational Awareness Startup based in Bangalore, today announced the successful closure of an extended $12 million Series A round. The round witnessed the participation of new investors including Aditya Birla Ventures (Venture Capital arm of Aditya Birla Group) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), marking their first investment foray into the space technology sector, and reinforcing their commitment to Digantara’s vision of enabling safe and sustainable operations in space. Digantara’s funding today is an extension of the $10 million it had raised back in June of last year led by PeakXV Partners (erstwhile Sequoia Capital India & SE Asia), and Kalaari Capital.

With PM Modi’s recent announcement to launch India’s own space station by 2035, it is important to have a robustinfrastructure in space for surveillance and management. As of now, only 4% ofthe objects in orbit are tracked, thus leaving a significant gap in the surveillance and management of the rest of the millions of objects in space .Digantara’s comprehensive Space-Mission Assurance Platform (Space-MAP)leverages a multi-modal data pool to provide stakeholders with accurate datasets and precise orbital insights, thereby ensuring the safety and sustainability of space operations.

“Space Tech is indeed the next frontier for innovation offering unprecedented opportunities for growth. The globalspace market is expected to cross US$ 1 trillion by the next decade. Werecognize the extraordinary potential for innovation in India and its capacity to become a significant global player in this domain.  We have strong belief in Digantara’s abilityto develop advanced data led ‘Space Situational Awareness’ solutions forclients globally. The investment is in line with our vision to back outstanding founding teams, building businesses of tomorrow. Our endeavour is to open up ABG’s global ecosystem and network for the growth of our portfolio companies.” – Aryaman Vikram Birla, Founder, Aditya Birla Ventures

Moreover, Digantara has unveiled STARS (SpaceThreat Assessment & Response Suite), its proprietary Military and DefenseSuite designed to bolster national sovereign space capabilities. Already inbeta service with select government agencies in Singapore, the UK, Australia, and India, STARS sets a new standard in space situational awareness tailored for the global defense sector.

“We're delighted to support Digantara, a pioneer in Space Domain Awareness, propelling India towards global leadership in space technology. Our investment from SVCLhighlights our belief in the sector's power to enhance India's prominence on the world stage, marking a significant leap in our nation's progress." Mr.S.Ramann, CMD SIDBI.

"It's heartening to witness this level of support, particularly when a leading global conglomerate like the Aditya Birla Group, and important financial institutions like SIDBI, backed by theGovernment of India, for the first time, invest in the space sector. This moveis a powerful indicator of the momentum building within India's space ecosystem, poised for accelerated development and global leadership in space innovation.” Anirudh Sharma, CEO, Digantara.

Looking ahead, Digantara is set to further its global footprint, with plans to expand its offerings to the US, UK, and EU. The upcoming year will also see the launch of two space-based SSA sensors and the operationalization of two state-of-the-art observatories in India. These initiatives underscore Digantara’s unwavering commitment to enhancing global space safety through innovative surveillance and analysis technologies.

SVCL is in the process of subscribing to securities of Digantara, upon consummation of the transaction contemplated under the definitive agreements.

About Digantara

Digantara is a space situational awareness company developing an end-to-end infrastructure to address the difficulties of space operations and situational awareness through its pioneering Space - Mission Assurance Platform a.k.a. Space - MAP. Space-MAP will serve as a one stop solution for all space operations supporting stakeholders across the space value chain and life cycle of a spacecraft mission. This platform will be as powerful and sophisticated as Google Maps, serving as a foundational layer for space operations and astrodynamics research. Digantara is founded by Anirudh Sharma, Rahul Rawat, and Tanveer Ahmed who have previously built cutting-edge satellites and ground stations during their undergraduate studies while delivering satellite subsystems to space agencies.

More about Digantara: https://www.digantara.co.in/

More about Aditya Birla Ventures:

Aditya Birla Ventures (ABV), founded by Aryaman Vikram Birla and backed by Aditya Birla Group (ABG), invests in new age leading businesses of tomorrow. ABV invests across sectors including Fin-tech, Enterprise-tech, Consumer-tech, Health-tech, Deep-tech, Consumer brands, etc.  It aspires to open ABG’s global eco-system, wealth of experience and industry relationships for the growth of its portfolio companies.  In the league of Fortune 500, ABG is US$ 65 billion global conglomerate, with presence in 40 countries, employing over 187,000 employees globally belonging to 100 nationalities.

More about ABV: https://www.adityabirlaventures.com | More about ABG:  https://www.adityabirla.com

About SIDBI Venture Capital

SIDBI Venture Capital Limited (SVCL), incorporated in1999, is an investment management company and a wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI (www.sidbi.in), the Apex Financial Institution in the country for the MSME sector. Over its life, SVCL has managed funds focussed on different themes including Startups/ early stage technology businesses, manufacturing SMEs , service entities, agri businesses, financial inclusion companies, etc. However, the common string in all investments has been the focus to identify strong& ethical leadership teams capable of executing innovation based business models or robust scalable businesses. We firmly believe our investments are partnerships and seek like-minded entrepreneurs to work with a view to develop businesses that are solid in their principles and objectives.

More about SVCL: https://sidbiventure.co.in/