Why India’s spacetech sector is outpacing the rest of deeptech

India's deep technology (deeptech) sector has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, with startups advancing from prototypes to hardware deployment and institutional procurement. However, the biggest hurdle remains commercialising validated technology and scaling it into successful products. While many deeptech startups struggle to transition from seed to Series A funding rounds, India's space technology sector has managed to outpace its peers in this regard.

The key to this success lies in the fact that space startups have built a global outlook since the inception of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in 2020. This has allowed them to focus on international markets, opening up unprecedented opportunities that many domestic deeptech sectors have yet to exploit.

Co-founders and key executives from two leading Indian space technology startups, Agnikul Cosmos and SatLeo Labs, attribute their sector's success to their early adoption of global standards and target markets. By building products for international customers in Europe and the US, these companies were able to meet global requirements from the outset, rather than retrofitting them later.

This global approach has enabled Indian space technology companies to test their technology against international benchmarks and establish a foothold in the global market, while many domestic deeptech sectors remain constrained by domestic demand and limited commercialisation opportunities. As such, the lessons learned from India's space technology sector could prove valuable for other deeptech industries seeking to scale their hardware innovations and achieve commercial success.