Paytm founder backs spacetech startup Kawa Space

Mumbai-headquartered Kawa Space, which designs and operates earth observation satellites, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. 

The startup had previously raised a seed round in June from Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner of Speciale Invest.

The latest fundraise was first reported by YourStory.  Email queries sent to Kris Nair, co-founder, Kawa Space, were not answered till the time of publishing the report. 

Kawa Space is among the handful of private space technology companies that won the contract to build satellites for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Founded in 2018 by Nair and Bala Menon, Kawa Space designs and operates earth observations satellites. 

It works with small companies as well as large corporations on a pay-as-you-go model. The satellites from Kawa can be rented by companies to gather data on an application program interface linked to Kawa’s data centres.

The Parliament is likely to table the draft Space Activities Bill 2017 allowing private players to participate in building and launching rockets and satellites for Indian as well as foreign firms.

Similar deals in the space

The private space technology sector in India has seen funding activity from early stage investors.

In June, Bellatrix Aerospace, which develops satellite propulsion, raised $3 million from IDFC-Parampara, StartupXseed, Karnataka Semiconductor Venture Capital Fund and the family office of Suman Kant Munjal, additional director at Hero Group.

In April, Curefit co-founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori invested $1.4 million in  Skyroot Aerospace, which designs and builds rockets for low-earth launches.