Digantara raises $10 million in Series A funding round led by Peak XV

Dixita Hazarika — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:52:29 +0000

Digantara, which is an Indian space tech startup working on space situational awareness, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Peak XV Partners. Peak XV Partners on Tuesday made its first official funding announcement since restructuring from Sequoia India, leading a $10 million series A funding round in Digantara.

This announcement marked Peak XV’s foray into the space-tech sector, which has over 50 unicorn startups in its portfolio. Digantara, reportedly will be using the funds to build its commercial space situational awareness satellites, as part of its infrastructure. The company is building what is essentially a map of all objects in space, which it seeks to offer to space-faring organisations globally, as a data-on-demand service. In the long run, once its service is fully operational, it will work as a traffic roadmap for orbits in space. The company is also seeking to expand its team and set up a new office in Bengaluru.

According to Anirudh Sharma, chief executive of Digantara, “Alongside expanding the team, the entire funding round will be used in building and deploying the first batch of our space situational awareness (SSA) satellites, which will have eight satellites in total. We’ll launch the first one some time this year, followed by the remaining seven within 12 months of the first commercial satellite launch. With this, we aim to commence commercial satellite awareness data operations after April next year.” He further said that the company will not need all eight of its own satellites to commence commercial operations.

He further added in his statement that,”Having our own SSA infrastructure will give us more independence operationally, but we already source satellite data from government-backed space agencies and commercial firms that already have satellites in space. This is akin to how Google sources traffic data for Maps, which gives us a vast amount of space data to analyse, track and offer to clients.”

Digantara is presently working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to source satellite data, among others and is presently demonstrating its space analytics services to government and defence agencies of Singapore and the UK.

According to Shailesh Lakhani, managing director of Peak XV Partners, “SSA is a rapidly growing market, and explained the investor’s rationale by stating that the product “will lead to significant capability in the life cycle of managing satellites.”

Digantara’s latest round makes for an increasing number of international investors leading funding rounds in domestic space-tech firms. From this it can be said that India has become a compelling market for investors looking to put money into emerging space tech startups.

BeepKart raises $9 million in Series A led by Vertex Ventures

United News of India (UNI) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 11:52:24 +0000

BeepKart, a full-stack online platform of used 2-wheelers said that it has raised USD9 million in its Series A round led by Vertex Ventures South East Asia & India.

The round also witnessed participation from existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures who had led the USD3 million seed round of the company in September 2021.

Hemir Doshi, co-founder & CEO, BeepKart said, “A combination of an internal and external product-led strategy, operational excellence across the stack of activities and the right value system can help transform the used 2-wheeler market which is far more unorganized than the used-car market. The BeepKart team has patiently built out its playbook in Bengaluru, is profitable at a city level and is ready to gradually replicate elsewhere while continuing to learn. In essence, we are challenging the need to buy an expensive new 2-wheeler when a BeepKart bike is available to upgrade the consumer’s life.”

Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India said, “India is the 2-wheeler capital of the world. A 2-wheeler is more than just a personal commute solution as millions of Indian families depend on them for their livelihood. The used 2-wheeler market, which by all accounts should be a thriving, well-orchestrated market, is plagued by issues that make it a classic market for lemons. We are excited to back Hemir and Abhishek in their endeavor to build a brand that solves for all issues that impact trust among buyers and sellers: price transparency, service delivery, product warranty, and many others. It takes a lot to deliver this, and the team’s razor-sharp focus on operating excellence is what sets BeepKart apart.”

The fresh round of funds raised by BeepKart will be channeled towards building the digital user journey further to earn customer love, internal products and systems that serve as competitive moats, brand and operational excellence while scaling the business geographically.

Series A | Business Upturn

Digantara raises $10 million in Series A funding round led by Peak XV

BeepKart raises $9 million in Series A led by Vertex Ventures