Dhruva Space

Dhruva Space Private Limited is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. Founded in 2012 by Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti, the company is engaged in the development of small satellites in the commercial, governmental and academic markets. It provides full-stack space-engineering solutions across launch, space and ground segments – namely, the building, launching and operation of satellites.

The founding team is composed of business and technology leaders who were formerly working with Exseed Space (now called Satellize), ams AG, Cisco and KPMG and all of whom are alumni of institutes such as BITS Pilani, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, EMLYON Business School, Luleå University of Technology and Arizona State University.

History
In 2014, Dhruva Space signed a deal with AMSAT India to develop HAMSAT-II.

In December 2019, Dhruva Space raised ₹5 crore in funding led by Mumbai Angels Network.

In September 2020, Dhruva Space became the first Indian private company to secure an order for end-to-end design and development of space-grade solar arrays for satellites.

In October 2021, Dhruva Space raised ₹22 crore in funding led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) Fund and Blue Ashva Capital.

On 16 March 2022, Dhruva Space signed a commercial launch services agreement (LSA) with NewSpace India Limited for an in-orbit test of its Dhruva Space Orbit Deployers. These are likely to be used on board the PSLV and the SSLV.

On 10 June 2022 at the inauguration of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Dhruva Space signed an MoU with IN-SPACe.

On 24 June, Dhruva Space and Digantara Aerospace were announced as the first two private companies to receive authorisation from IN-SPACe for space activities.

On 22 April 2024, Dhruva Space closed its Series A fundraise at ₹123 Crores (~US$15 million). The funding saw significant participation from Indian Angel Network Alpha Fund and Blue Ashva Capital, as well as Silverneedle Ventures, BIG Global Investment JSC (BITEXCO Group), IvyCap Ventures, Mumbai Angels, and Blume Founders Fund.

Capability and Infrastructure
Dhruva Space currently operates out of a 10,000 square-foot facility in the Begumpet area of Hyderabad. The workspace houses specialised facilities such as a Class 10,000 Cleanroom, a Helmholtz Cage, fully-equipped mechanical and electronic labs, and an operational ground station.

On 14 October 2023, Dhruva Space shared a first look at the company's upcoming 280,000 square-foot facility to be situated in the outskirts of Hyderabad that will design, engineer, assemble, integrate and test large-scale satellite infrastructure. Products and services include satellite platforms and subsystems, satellite orbital deployers, ground station equipment, and more. The facility completion will be done in a multi-phase manner. The first phase – to be ready in 18 to 24 months – will be 150,000 square feet, which includes a 20,000 square foot Solar Array Assembly Line.

Partnerships
Dhruva Space has nurtured a breadth of global partnerships, with entities including Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), United States-based Redwire Space, and France-based Safran, among others.

On 16 February 2023, Dhruva Space signed a Memorandum of Agreement with French strategic equipment supplier Comat, for a bilateral technology exchange for diversity in market access and Space solutions.

On 16 March 2023, Dhruva Space announced a partnership with France-based satellite operator and global IoT connectivity provider Kinéis. Both companies will collaborate to establish space and ground infrastructure to scale the diversity and impact of satellite-based solutions. Kinéis' and Dhruva Space's partnership will culminate in a joint satellite mission for various IoT applications. This mission was announced by French space agency CNES in a press release detailing Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi's official tour of France in July 2023.

On 28 June 2024, Dhruva Space and Kinéis announced their intention to Kinéis IoT connectivity in India, and to launch a Kinéis IoT payload on Dhruva Space P-30 satellite. Dhruva Space will provide services in India, wherein significant efforts shall be placed towards experimentation and development of new and innovative applications that can be enabled by the Kinéis satellite network. This partnership is focused on Dhruva Space providing Kinéis IoT services in India along with developing new and innovative applications which can be supported by Kinéis’ 25-satellite constellation. This collaboration also comprises a joint satellite mission to augment the Space segment capacity for India. The partnership will allow Kinéis and Dhruva Space to offer cost-effective, advanced and reliable IoT solutions as well as innovate and develop new applications and services tailored to the Indian market, driving technological advancement.

In March 2024, Dhruva Space and SSC extended their long-standing partnership, indicating a commitment to further collaboration in the realm of satellite ground station networks, to help accelerate the growth of Swedish and Indian new space industries initiatives. Dhruva Space will be leveraging the SSC network of Ground Stations for LEAP-1, an upcoming hosted payload satellite mission, which is slated for launch later in 2024.

Awards & Accolades
In March 2022, Dhruva Space was named 'Best Spacetech Startup' by Entrepreneur India magazine, BusinessEx.com and Gupshup for the Startup 2022 Awards.

On March 17, 2022, Dhruva Space won the Qualcomm Design for India Challenge 2021 for their Bolt module. In October 2022, the company exhibited Bolt at the India Mobile Congress 2022 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, as part of Qualcomm India's 5G Startups Showcase.

In April 2022, Dhruva Space's founders were featured in Fortune India magazine's 40 Under 40 annual list.

On 11 October 2022, Dhruva Space was named ‘Best Startup - Silver’ for the Telangana State Industry Awards 2022. The Award will be accoladed to the startup on 7 March 2023 by Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology, Government of Telangana.

On 1 March 2023, Dhruva Space was awarded with an Innovation for India Award by the Marico Innovation Foundation. The Innovation for India Awards was held at Jio World Centre, Mumbai, and the award was accoladed to Dhruva Space by Rajeev Bakshi, Non-Executive & Independent Director, Marico Limited.

On 27 March, Dhruva Space was announced as one of the winners of the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Skill Excellence Awards, instituted by the Ministry of Communications, Government of India. The Awards Ceremony was held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, during the First International Quantum Conclave. The PDUT Award was felicitated to Dhruva Space by Ashwini Vaishnaw, IAS, Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India.

On 27 October, Dhruva Space was listed as one of Forbes India's DGEMS 200 for the year 2023. Forbes India partnered for this launch edition of DGEMS with D Globalist, a global business mobility accelerator.

Missions
On 30 June 2022, Dhruva Space's Satellite Orbital Deployer was successfully tested and space-qualified (known as DSOD-1U Mission) in Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV C53 mission, hosted on POEM. The launch took place at 18:02 IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Recognition of the mission success came from dignitaries including Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and IT Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao.

On 26 November 2022, Dhruva Space launched two amateur radio communication CubeSats as part of ISRO's PSLV C54 mission. The launch of Dhruva Space's Thybolt Mission took place at 11:56am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. As of 1 February 2023, Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2 completed 1000 orbits in LEO. The mission lifetime, according to the company, is approximately one year. At Broadband India Forum’s India SatCom 2022 in New Delhi, India, Dhruva Space was accoladed by IN-SPACe Chairman Dr. Pawan K Goenka to have 'the first private Indian satellites authorised by IN-SPACe, successfully deployed in orbit.' In June 2024, Dhruva Space announced that the Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2 satellites had deborbited after more than 15,000 combined orbits.

The mission observed support from dignitaries including Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region of India G Kishan Reddy, and Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and IT Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao.

On 22 April 2023, the company launched its 3U and 6U Satellite Orbital Deployers and its Dhruva Space Satellite Orbiter Link (DSOL) onboard ISRO’s PSLV C55, as part of POEM-2. Dhruva Space and IN-SPACe have both declared the missions successful.

Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads (LEAP)
One of Dhruva Space's commercial offerings as a full-stack company is full-fledged hosted payload solutions for Space missions across the global market, through the company's 'Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads' initiative.

Dhruva Space Space-qualified its P-30 nanosatellite platform launched as ‘LEAP - Technology Demonstrator’ (or LEAP-TD) payload onboard ISRO’s PSLV-C58 POEM-3 mission on 1 January 2024. This mission not only validated the company's P-30 platform but also its various subsystems in-orbit.

The company's next mission is LEAP-1 mission which will see Dhruva Space's P-30 nanosatellite set to validate the satellite imagery payload of an Australian customer. According to ISRO, this mission is set to fly onboard PSLV-C59.