From petri dish to payload: India's next Big Bang in future deeptech

Part II of this series shines the spotlight on India's audacious deeptech builders - startups engineering the country's future by tackling challenges too complex for conventional innovation

Bengaluru-based Xovian Aerospace plans to deploy a constellation of satellites that will provide signal intelligence to track assets, including ships and aircraft. At Digantara, the mission is to make space safe by creating, among other things, a space debris detector. In Chennai, The ePlane Co. is piecing together an electric aircraft designed to make urban air taxis a reality. 

In the Delhi-National Capital Region, Dharaksha Ecosolutions is growing mycelium-based biodegradable packaging to replace Styrofoam. Meanwhile, technology veteran and former Tech Mahindra chief executive officer (CEO) C P Gurnani is helping “define how artificial intelligence (AI) and humans work together for the next 50 years” via AIonOS, a venture he cofounded with Rahul Bhatia, group managing director of InterGlobe Enterprises.

 

These are not your average startups. They are the flagbearers of a growing deeptech revolution — a shift from consumer-facing apps and marketplaces to startups solving hard, science-driven problems. 

Over the past decade, India’s startup narrative has been dominated by quick commerce, ride-hailing, financial technology (fintech) unicorns, and the like. Now, deeptech founders are building ventures that require years of research and development, deep capital, and patient execution — but promise to deliver transformative global solutions. 

From labs to launchpads 

Take Digantara, cofounded in 2018 by then 19-year-old Anirudh Sharma. His team is building space situational awareness (SSA) systems that will make space safer and navigable. “The current systems for SSA and space domain awareness are outdated. We’re building the invisible infrastructure — space-based sensors, orbital payloads, etc. — to make sure satellites, rockets, and spacecraft can operate safely,” says Sharma. 

Digantara has raised $15 million so far from investors including Peak XV Partners, Kalaari Capital, Global Brain (Japan), the Aditya Birla group, and the Small Industries Development Bank of India.

 

ALSO READ (Part 1): Dorm rooms to orbit: Can India's deeptech leap deliver on its promise?

It took nearly four years to move from concept to their first commercial satellite, Mission SCOT (Space Camera for Object Tracking). The journey involved building proprietary sensors, developing inference systems, and navigating regulatory hurdles. Digantara is laying the groundwork for what Sharma calls a “marketplace for space intelligence”. 

In three to five years, Digantara expects to run the world’s most comprehensive commercial space surveillance network — a real-time analytics layer for governments, defence agencies, and satellite operators globally. 

The ePlane Co. is chasing a different frontier: urban air mobility. Founded by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras professor Satya Chakravarthy in 2019, the company is building a vertical takeoff and landing electric plane. 

“We’re targeting short-range, intracity flights. Think of it as an air taxi — affordable, efficient, and faster than being stuck in urban traffic,” says Chakravarthy. 

Backed by $20 million and employing over 150 engineers, the company expects to conduct its first flight tests this year, beginning with air ambulance applications before scaling to commuter routes.

 

In Bengaluru, Xovian is building what cofounder Ankit Bhateja calls “the nervous system for Earth”. Xovian’s AI-native radio frequency satellites scan the planet’s radio spectrum, decoding real-time signals from ships, planes, and other moving assets. 

“Legacy satellites are blind to real-time threats. Our infrastructure will deliver actionable intelligence for sectors from defence and aviation to maritime logistics,” says Bhateja. 

The journey began humbly in 2012 when Bhateja and cofounder Raghav Sharma met on a Facebook group for space enthusiasts. After a successful student satellite mission, they launched Xovian in 2019. By the end of 2025, their first satellites will be operational, with a plan to scale to a 10-satellite constellation within five years. 

At Dreamfly Innovations, cofounder Kajal Shah is tackling a critical problem: battery technology for drones, electric aircraft, and aerospace platforms. “Current batteries are adapted from consumer electronics or electric vehicles. They don’t meet the performance, safety, or thermal demands of high-stakes applications like agriculture, surveillance, logistics, mapping, or aerial mobility,” says Shah. 

Dreamfly designs aerospace-grade batteries from the ground up, blending material science and engineering for high energy density, reliability, and resilience under extreme conditions. From early lab work in 2022, Dreamfly has moved to commercial pilots with aerospace original equipment manufacturers, backed by ₹17 crore in funding from Avaana Capital, Sun Icon Ventures, and others. “In the next three to five years, we want to be the go-to name for aviation-grade battery solutions, made in India for the world,” says Shah. 

Reprogramming biology 

While aerospace dominates headlines, deeptech ventures like BacAlt BioSciences and Dharaksha Ecosolutions are transforming materials and sustainability.

 

BacAlt, cofounded by Shruti Kutmutia and Pranav Nair, is scaling biopolymers (natural polymers produced by living cells) like bacterial nanocellulose and poly-gamma-glutamic acid for diverse apps such as personal care, chemicals, and advanced materials.

 

“It took us 18 months to go from petri dishes to a functional pilot. At one point, we were blending 750 kilograms of agro-waste with a 2-litre kitchen blender — because we had to prove we could scale,” says Kutmutia, who is also the CEO of BacAlt. 

Today, with $2 million in pre-seed funding from Avaana Sustainability Fund and Lubrizol (a Berkshire Hathaway company), BacAlt is setting up production units across India to tap into agro-waste streams and supply high-performance biomaterials globally.

 

At Dharaksha, CEO Arpit Dhupar is using mycelium — the root system of fungi — to create biodegradable packaging. “India generates over 25,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily. We’re replacing plastic by reprogramming biology to deliver scalable, high-performance materials,” says Dhupar. 

From two years of lab trials to a functioning pilot facility, Dharaksha has raised ₹30 crore across two rounds from Rainmatter, Momentum Capital, Avaana, and others and is scaling operations to multiple manufacturing hubs in India. 

Space: The final frontier 

Some startups are taking deeptech even further — literally. At IIT Madras, Inbound Aerospace is developing autonomous, reusable re-entry vehicles to support in-orbit experiments and microgravity manufacturing. 

“Our platform will provide low-cost, frequent access to a zero-gravity environment. Our core product is an autonomous and reusable spacecraft, capable of re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere from space and landing at a runway of our choice,” says Vishal Reddy, cofounder of Inbound. Inbound plans its first re-entry mission by early 2028, just as the International Space Station nears decommissioning. 

Then there’s Eon Space Labs, which is building AI-driven electro-optical and infrared imaging payloads for satellites, drones, and ground platforms. With $1.2 million in funding and strong commercial traction, Eon is preparing to launch its first ultra-light space telescope, Mira, by the end of 2025. 

Not all deeptech ventures are hardware-heavy. AIonOS, cofounded by Gurnani, is reimagining enterprise infrastructure for the AI era. “At AIonOS, we’re solving a first-principles problem. How can enterprises run on AI, natively — not as an add-on, but as a core operating layer?” says Gurnani. 

AIonOS’ agentic AI platform, IntelliMate, helps enterprises unify, orchestrate, and observe AI agents across operations — from accelerating insurance claims processing to streamlining logistics. “This is deeptech by every definition. You can’t bolt this onto legacy systems; you have to reimagine the plumbing — from infrastructure to data to intelligent agents. That’s what we are building,” says Gurnani. 

Most founders agree that the early years are the hardest. Whether it’s access to testing facilities, regulatory clarity, or patient capital, building deeptech in India requires persistence. “When we started, there was no playbook for building and launching an SSA satellite — or, in simple words, tracking an object moving at 7 kilometres per second in space, from space! We often had to build things that didn’t exist,” recalls Sharma of Digantara. 

Deeptech is a long game. 

From lab to market can take years — and scaling often requires more capital and collaboration than consumer tech. For ePlane, regulatory hurdles added years to its timeline. For Dharaksha, scaling biology meant reinventing manufacturing 

systems. And for Xovian, building global satellite coverage demands patience — and a constellation of hardware in orbit. 

Despite the hurdles, the ambition is unmistakable. In five years, Digantara wants to be the global leader in orbital intelligence. Xovian plans a network of satellites providing real-time decision intelligence to defence and commercial clients worldwide. Dreamfly aims to be a global supplier of aerospace-grade batteries. BacAlt envisions exporting biopolymers to Fortune 500 companies. “We’re building for the world, from India,” says Kutmutia. “Deeptech gives us the leverage to do that.” 

If the past decade was about India Stack and the rise of fintech and consumer platforms, the next five years could belong to deeptech. These startups are defining India’s next chapter. By 2030, the world could see an Indian electric air taxi hovering over Mumbai traffic, satellites built in Bengaluru guiding global shipping routes, and biodegradable packaging from Delhi replacing Styrofoam. 

  Deeptech takes time, but when it scales, it changes everything. 

 

The writer is a New Delhi-based independent journalist