India seeks Singapore capital to fuel its ambitious private space sector

SINGAPORE – India has launched more than half of Singapore’s satellites and is seeking to launch even more as its private space sector expands.

This is all part of New Delhi’s plan to grow its space economy into a US$44 billion (S$56 billion) industry by 2033, from the current valuation of around US$8.4 billion.

With its ambitious space programmes, which include plans for an Indian space station by 2035, and an Indian on the Moon by 2040, New Delhi wants to narrow the gap with competitors like the US and China.

According to BryceTech’s Smallsats by the Numbers 2025, American firms lead the global launch sector with around 86 per cent of commercial satellites, followed by China at around 9 per cent.

India’s Department of Space and other sources place the country’s global market share at around 2 per cent. However, significant growth is projected in both the Asian markets in the next decade.

With more countries, including Singapore, seeing space as the next frontier for commercial growth and to support an array of national capabilities such as urban planning and environmental monitoring using geospatial data, India seeks to serve this growth in demand.

“The 2033 plan of US$44 billion has a domestic component to it and international component to it. The international component is US$11 billion and domestic is US$33 billion – the US$11 billion will obviously come from international collaboration,” Dr Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), told The Straits Times.

He was in Singapore for the Republic’s inaugural Space Summit to generate interest in India’s space start-ups among local investors. The Singapore Government announced the formation of the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS) at the summit.

Other major global space agencies such as NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), German Space Agency (DLR), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and a few South-east Asian space agencies also participated in the summit.

In the last four years, India’s space sector has transitioned from a government-only model to one with over 200 private space companies.

Indian space start-ups are positioning themselves as technology leaders in low-cost, on-demand satellite launching and seek to attract investment and customers.

To facilitate capital inflow, India has dismantled significant regulatory barriers.

“Till about a year-and-a-half ago, we had constraints on FDI (foreign direct investment)... now we have eased that,” Dr Goenka said, referring to new norms that allow up to 100 per cent foreign investment in certain categories.

Small launch pads with big ambitions

One of India’s selling points to Singapore investors could be its small-satellite launch infrastructure, which is in the final stages of completion. This caters directly to Singapore’s niche in miniaturised satellites.

“We have a unique situation of three small satellite launch vehicles (about 500kg payload)... within the next year to a year-and-a-half, all three will be fully functional,” Dr Goenka said. The US operates much larger rockets, which are up to triple the size of those India typically fires now.

“We are also developing a launch pad only for launching small satellites. Together, we create a whole infrastructure for small satellite design, manufacturing and launching. So that will be a big thrust, because we believe that India can be technologically at advanced stage in these areas and commercially be able to offer a very good price for potential customers.”

Proximity is also a strong selling point, with one of India’s new launch centres under development in south Chennai.

“I was telling somebody jokingly that our launch centre... is probably closer to Singapore than to Delhi,” Dr Goenka said.

He noted the growing collaboration in the space sector between India and Singapore, with recent commercial partnerships such as that between Singapore-based Transcelestial and India’s HEX20’s joint test collaboration to bring laser communications into orbit.

Separately, Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) is working with India’s Digantara Industries, an India-based space surveillance and intelligence company, to jointly develop tools for Space Situational Awareness (SSA).

India and Singapore signed a wide-ranging space cooperation agreement during Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s visit to New Delhi in September 2025.

While the United States and the United Kingdom are India’s top foreign satellite launch customers by volume, Singapore is its third-largest client, with over 20 satellites successfully placed in orbit.

Investments from sovereign funds to family offices

“Singapore and India have been excellent trade and commercial partners across sectors,” said Mr Prantik Mazumdar, president of TiE Singapore, a global network fostering entrepreneurship.

Collaborations are deepening especially in the sectors of semiconductors and supply chains, besides space, he said.

The investment by Singapore’s sovereign wealth giants in the Indian space sector is also seen as a signal to the broader market.

“Both GIC and Temasek have invested in a company like Skyroot,” Mr Mazumdar said. GIC invested US$51 million in Skyroot Aerospace, a private aerospace manufacturer in India, for a stake of just under 25 per cent in 2022. In 2023, Skyroot Aerospace raised US$27.5 million in another round of funding led by Temasek.

“Given Singapore’s interest in space tech... I am expecting that many more, not just sovereign wealth funds but private family offices and venture capital funds will look to partner and invest in private space tech companies from India.”

India’s space economy liberalisation, which began in 2020, came amid a shift in the global space economy from one that was state-led to a commercial ecosystem that is projected to grow into a US$1.8 trillion industry by 2035.

Singapore investors were active participants well before the current hype surrounding the industry, noted Chennai-based AgniKul Cosmos’ co-founder and chief executive Srinath Ravichandran.

“The Singapore ecosystem has always been very friendly for Indian start-ups,” he said.