InspeCity, a space startup based in India, has raised $10.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round to support four planned on-orbit missions over the next year and a half.
Speciale Invest and Ashish Kacholia led the round, which also included participation from Antler Elevate, Antler India, Manish Gandhi, Shastra VC, and others.
InspeCity was founded in 2022 and the company is focused on life extension and deorbiting technologies. The company is building an autonomous in-space servicing architecture that includes propulsion, sensing and autonomous proximity operations, robotic arm, and docking infrastructure.
The company plans to execute four in-orbit missions over the next year and a half focused on its services: RIG (Remote Inspection and Guidance), VEDA (Vehicle for life-Extension and Deorbiting Activities), and SAMA (Space Based Maintenance Asset). These missions will work to validate its propulsion, sensing, autonomous operations, robotics, docking and refuelling capabilities in space.
It has previously won two challenges in India’s Innovations for Defence Excellence iDEX program.
“This round marks our transition from proving technologies individually to qualifying an integrated architecture in space and putting it to work for customers,” commented InspeCity founder and CEO Prof. Arindrajit Chowdhury. “The next phase is about execution: fly, qualify, and deliver. We want customers and partners to see the technology de-risked through flight, our team to have the resources to execute, and the ecosystem to see that sophisticated in-space capabilities can be designed, built, and operated from India.”
