Spacetech startup GalaxEye has secured Rs 63.84 crore in financial support under the Centre's Research, Development and Innovation Fund, a significant public-sector push for an Indian company trying to commercialise a new class of multisensor satellite technology. The Technology Development Board, operating under the Department of Science and Technology, has signed an agreement with the Bengaluru-based startup to extend the support through optionally convertible debentures, the government said in a statement.
The project carries a total approved cost of Rs 247.69 crore and is designed to develop an indigenous satellite capable of OptoSAR imaging at a resolution finer than 0.5 metres. In practical terms, that means the system is intended to deliver extremely detailed Earth observation data while combining the strengths of two different sensing methods: synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, and electro-optical imaging. Optical imaging can be limited by cloud cover and daylight, while SAR can capture images through clouds and in darkness. By fusing the two, GalaxEye is aiming to create a more reliable, high-resolution imaging platform that can operate across weather and lighting conditions.
The government said the proposed satellite could be used for wide-area and long-range surveillance, detection of people and vehicles, and target classification. Those applications place the technology squarely in the high-value segment of geospatial intelligence, where demand is rising across defence, infrastructure monitoring, agriculture, and disaster response. For India, the project also fits into a broader policy push to build more advanced domestic capability in strategic technologies rather than relying on imported systems.
TDB secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak said the agreement reflects the board's emphasis on supporting emerging space technologies and helping them move toward market readiness. "The agreement with GalaxEye reflects TDB's focus on enabling indigenous capabilities in emerging space technologies and supporting their journey towards commercialisation," he said. The wording underscores the government's interest not only in research, but in helping startups bridge the difficult gap between laboratory success and deployable, revenue-generating products.
Founded in 2021 by Suyash Singh, Denil Chawda, Kishan Thakkar, Pranit Mehta and Rakshit Bhatt, GalaxEye has positioned itself as a developer of multi-sensor Earth observation satellites intended to deliver high-resolution imaging and geospatial intelligence for defence, agriculture, infrastructure and disaster management. The IIT Madras-incubated startup says it is building what it describes as the world's first multi-sensor Earth observation satellite and plans to deploy a constellation of indigenous micro-satellites with data-fusion capabilities.
The new government support comes after a period of rapid technical and financial activity for the company. Earlier this year, GalaxEye raised Rs 44.2 crore as part of an ongoing Series A round, with investors including Speciale Invest, Rainmatter, MV Core and Mounttech Growth Fund. The startup has raised nearly $27 million in funding to date from backers such as Speciale Invest, Mela Ventures and Anicut Capital, reflecting continued investor interest in Indian spacetech despite the sector's long development cycles and capital-intensive nature.
GalaxEye also recently secured a US patent for its satellite imaging technology, which the company said was the first of its kind for an Indian spacetech startup. The patent covers the core architecture behind its proprietary OptoSAR technology, giving the company an important intellectual-property milestone as it seeks to build a defensible commercial position in a competitive global market.
That progress has not come without setbacks. In May, GalaxEye launched its maiden OptoSAR satellite under Mission Drishti, which it described as India's largest privately built Earth observation satellite and the world's first imaging satellite using OptoSAR. The company later lost communication with the satellite in July after an anomaly linked to a geomagnetic solar storm. Even so, the startup has continued to press ahead, and is now targeting the launch of two new OptoSAR satellites over the next two years while expanding its in-house capabilities to improve quality, reliability and execution.
The latest agreement also marks another step in the Centre's broader Rs 1 lakh crore RDI Fund, approved in July 2025 to increase private-sector participation in research, development and innovation. The fund is intended to finance technology development and commercialisation through long-term support, and GalaxEye's selection suggests that advanced space systems remain a priority area for public backing.
For India's spacetech ecosystem, the deal is more than a single startup milestone. It signals that the government is willing to place patient capital behind companies attempting to build strategic hardware at home, even when the path to operational deployment is technically complex and commercially uncertain. For GalaxEye, the challenge now is to convert that support into a satellite system that can perform in orbit, at scale, and on schedule.