FILE PHOTO: A satellite model is placed on a picture of Earth in this illustration taken November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Funding in India’s space sector, a key part of the country’s ambitions to become a global superpower, plummeted by 55% in 2024 to $59.1 million from $130.2 million the previous year, according to data from market intelligence platform Tracxn.
The drop, which came amid a global 20% decline in space sector investment, marks the first fall in at least five years. Globally, space companies raised about $28 billion over the last five years, while their Indian counterparts secured approximately $354 million in the same period, Tracxn data showed.
India’s space industry has gained global attention with the Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing and the Aditya-L1 solar probe launch. Its private space sector growth is increasingly seen as crucial for achieving the long-term goal a $44 billion private space economy.
The government has sought to stimulate the sector by approving a 10 billion rupee ($119 million) fund in October 2024 to support space startups and setting plans to expand India’s share of the global commercial space market by 2033.
Industry participants said they expected to see a pickup in funding in 2025.
"The next 12 months will be crucial in shaping the future of India's space tech startups," said Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at Speciale Invest, which backs companies such as Agnikul Cosmos, GalaxEye, and Inspecity.
In 2023, India’s space sector hit a funding peak of $130.2 million, a 32.9% rise from 2022, driven by initiatives supporting satellite technology, launch vehicles, and space exploration.
"The decline aligns with the natural investment cycles of the industry," said Pawan Chandana, founder of Skyroot Aerospace. "As leading companies approach critical milestones in 2025, investment activity is likely to pick up."
Over the five years from 2020 to 2024, Indian space startups raised $353.5 million across 72 funding rounds. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also projected a 20%-30% increase in its budget to support deep space exploration and heavy-lift rockets.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
