Digantara’s $50M defence-first space bet

Indian space startup Digantara just raised $50 million in a Series B round. But instead of chasing commercial space customers, it’s doubling down on defence and missile tracking.

That decision says a lot about where the real money in space lies today.

What Digantara started with

Founded in 2020, Digantara began with a clear mission:

SSA sounds futuristic. But it has a problem.

👉 Commercial demand is still tiny.

As founder Anirudh Sharma bluntly puts it:

“It’s quite difficult for any space company to survive only on commercial customers.”

 Not a pivot. An evolution.

Digantara didn’t abandon SSA. It extended it.

The company had already built systems capable of tracking fast-moving objects in orbit. That led to a simple but powerful question:

If we can track satellites and debris… why not missiles?

And just like that, Digantara expanded into:

Same tech base. Much bigger market.

Why defence customers matter more

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about the global space economy:

• Governments do most of the serious spending

• Defence contracts are long-term and sticky

• Winning them proves deep technical credibility

Today, Digantara works with six defence customers across:

Geography: India, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.

That credibility helped close the $50M Series B.

 Where the $50M will go

This isn’t growth-for-growth’s-sake funding. It’s about execution.

A big chunk is internal capex — expensive, but unavoidable in defence.

The US lesson: “Made in America”

One hard rule of defence:

👉 You can’t sell Indian-built hardware to US defence agencies.

So Digantara split its operations cleanly:

The US unit runs as a separate, citizen-only, classified entity.

Result? Faster approvals. Bigger contracts.

📡 What’s already live

Digantara isn’t just talking strategy — it’s executing:

Next up: launches in March, June, and October, aiming for 15 satellites in two years.

🏭 Manufacturing muscle in India

Digantara currently operates:

Coming soon:

• A much larger facility in Andhra Pradesh

• Target: up to 30 satellites at once

 The money snapshot

 The UnlistedZone takeaway

Space may look commercial on the outside. But defence is where the money is today.

Digantara’s journey shows a hard truth for space startups:

Commercial dreams come later. Survival comes first.

By turning space-surveillance tech into space-based missile defence, Digantara isn’t chasing hype — it’s locking into long-term, government-backed demand.

And in the space business, staying funded is the only way to stay in orbit.