Startup Storyteller

Author: stories.cla

  • Their First Satellite Went Silent. Now The Government Is Backing Their Next One: GalaxEye Gets ₹63.84 Cr From India’s RDI Fund

    Their First Satellite Went Silent. Now The Government Is Backing Their Next One: GalaxEye Gets ₹63.84 Cr From India’s RDI Fund

    Bengaluru-based GalaxEye has secured ₹63.84 crore from the Centre’s ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund to build a next-generation all-weather Earth-observation satellite.

    In May 2026, GalaxEye put Drishti into orbit. It was India’s first OptoSAR satellite, a 190 kg spacecraft that combines two kinds of eyes in one. Two months later, the company lost communication with it, and attributed the problem to radiation effects from a geomagnetic solar storm.

    For most early-stage startups, that would be the end of the story. For GalaxEye, it’s the middle.

    The deal

    On 25 September 2026, the Technology Development Board (TDB), under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), signed an agreement with GalaxEye Space Solutions to provide ₹63.84 crore under the RDI Fund.

    • Instrument: Optionally convertible debentures, not a grant
    • Total project cost: ₹247.69 crore, so the government is funding about a quarter of it
    • Goal: An indigenous multisensor satellite with OptoSAR imaging at resolution finer than 0.5 metres
    • Maturity jump: From Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6, a demonstrated prototype, to TRL 9, an operationally proven system

    What is OptoSAR, in simple words?

    Most imaging satellites use one of two technologies:

    • Optical (electro-optical) cameras give sharp, photo-like images, but they can’t see through clouds or at night.
    • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) works through clouds, rain and darkness, but its images are harder to read.

    GalaxEye’s OptoSAR fuses both on one satellite. The result is detailed imagery in almost any weather, day or night. According to the official release, applications include surveillance, detection of people and vehicles, and target classification. That matters in a country with a four-month monsoon and long borders.

    The team

    GalaxEye was founded in 2021 and incubated at IIT Madras. Its founders are Suyash Singh (Co-founder & CEO), Denil Chawda, Kishan Thakkar, Pranit Mehta and Rakshit Bhatt.

    The company said the TDB support “will enable us to accelerate the development and validation of our OptoSAR technology.”

    Why the government is doing this

    The RDI Fund is a ₹1 lakh crore scheme created to finance private-sector research and innovation with long-term, low-cost capital. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has called it “a global first in public financing for private-sector innovation.” It covers sectors such as AI, semiconductors, quantum, clean energy and space.

    TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak framed the GalaxEye deal around self-reliance: “India’s space ecosystem is entering a phase where the ability to develop and deploy sophisticated technologies within the country will be increasingly important.”

    Put simply, the government is betting that the hardest stretch for deeptech startups is the gap between a working prototype and a proven product, and it wants to fund that gap.

    What it means for your career

    1. Spacetech is no longer only ISRO. Private companies like GalaxEye are building satellites in Bengaluru, and they need engineers, data scientists and mission operators.
    2. Satellite data plus AI is a growing skill set. Detecting vehicles or classifying targets from imagery is a machine-learning problem. Geospatial AI, remote sensing and SAR data analysis are skills worth learning now.
    3. Setbacks are part of deeptech. Drishti going silent didn’t end GalaxEye’s journey. Employers in this sector value people who can debug, learn and relaunch.

    The bigger picture

    India wants to build strategic technology at home, and the RDI Fund is one of its biggest tools for doing it. GalaxEye is one of the fund’s early bets in space. If it works, expect more Indian deeptech startups in AI, semiconductors and space to follow the same route: government capital to cross the prototype-to-product gap, then private capital to scale.

    Sources

  • Ema Raises $77M to Put “AI Employees” to Work — What It Means for Your Career

    Ema Raises $77M to Put “AI Employees” to Work — What It Means for Your Career

    On 23 September 2026, Ema, the enterprise AI company co-founded by Surojit Chatterjee, announced a $77 million Series B round. The round was led by Creaegis, a Bengaluru-based venture firm, with existing investors Accel, S32 and Prosus all increasing their stakes. Ema has now raised $140 million in total, and says the round more than quadruples its valuation from its previous raise.

    The headline number is big. The idea behind it is bigger.

    The story: software that does the work, not just holds it

    Most enterprise software is a place where work is recorded — tickets, forms, payroll entries. A human still does the work. Ema is betting that this is about to flip.

    The company builds what it calls agentic “AI Employees” that handle routine operations across HR, IT and finance: answering employee queries, resolving IT service tickets, handling calls. Named customers include Wipro, Hitachi, ADP and PwC.

    The deployment numbers Ema shared show the scale:

    • At one top-5 global systems integrator, Ema supports 240,000 associates across 65 countries, handling 2.9 million employee queries a year, with 60% ticket avoidance.
    • At one top-5 BPO, its AI Employees handle 1+ million IT service tickets and 1+ million calls a year in 15+ languages.
    • The company reports 50x revenue growth over 24 months.

    Chatterjee summed up the pitch in one line: “Enterprises do not need more software. They need work to get done.”

    Why this matters for India

    There is a strong India thread in this story. The round’s lead investor, Creaegis, is based in Bengaluru, and Ema has an office in the city. More importantly, several of its largest deployments are at IT services and BPO companies — the industries that employ millions of Indian graduates.

    When a top BPO uses AI to handle a million calls a year, that is not a lab experiment. It is a signal about how entry-level operations work is going to change.

    What it means for your career

    This isn’t a reason to panic. It is a reason to reposition. Three takeaways for students and early professionals:

    1. Routine ticket-and-query work is being automated first. Roles built only on repetitive L1 support are the most exposed.
    2. New roles are growing around the AI. Someone has to design workflows, integrate systems, check quality, and handle the escalations the AI can’t — Ema itself reports a sub-10% escalation rate at one BPO, and those escalations still need skilled people.
    3. Domain knowledge + AI skills is the winning combination. An HR, IT or finance professional who understands how to deploy and supervise AI agents is far more valuable than one who competes with them.

    The bigger picture

    Ema’s raise is part of a wider shift: investors are funding AI that replaces work, not just AI that assists with it. For founders, it’s a reminder that the biggest opportunities are in boring, high-volume business processes. For job seekers, it’s a clear sign of where to build skills next.

    Sources

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