India’s burgeoning private space industry has expanded rapidly, with more than 440 start-ups registered and investment soaring to nearly $622 million, signalling a new era of domestic space ambitions.
India’s space technology sector has grown into a sizeable private industry, with about 440 start-ups registered on the DPIIT Start-up India Portal, according to government data cited by The News Mill. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha earlier this week, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh said the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, or IN-SPACe, has granted 113 authorisations to 52 non-government entities for a range of space activities, including 18 start-ups.
The list of authorised start-ups includes some of the country’s best-known private space names, such as Agnikul Cosmos, Bellatrix Aerospace, Dhruva Space, Digantara, GalaxEye, Pixxel and Skyroot Aerospace, along with newer firms working across launch services, satellites, payloads and related infrastructure. According to the minister’s reply, applications for access to Indian Space Research Organisation facilities, including the launch pads at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, are handled through IN-SPACe’s digital platform and reviewed by an expert committee that assesses technical readiness.
The expansion in authorisations comes as private investment in India’s space sector has climbed sharply. Business Standard reported in July that spacetech start-ups had raised about $871 million across 241 funding rounds involving 285 companies, up from $43 million in 2021, with more than 60% of the capital concentrated in the 10 most-funded firms. The report said Skyroot Aerospace was the leading recipient, and linked the funding surge to policy changes that opened the sector more fully to private participation.
That policy shift began in June 2020, when the Union Cabinet agreed to open space activities to private companies. Since then, IN-SPACe has been set up as a single-window nodal body within the Department of Space, and the government says private investment had reached $618.5 million by 31 March 2026, almost six times the 2021-22 level of $100.5 million. According to reports in Times of India and other Indian outlets, private firms are now preparing for commercial launches in the 2026-27 fiscal year, while the broader ecosystem is moving towards more launches, more authorisations and a larger role for domestic industry in India’s space ambitions.
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