Digantara raises $50 million to expand from space surveillance to missile defense

WASHINGTON — Digantara Industries, an Indian space situational awareness company, has raised $50 million as it expands into the United States and pursues opportunities in missile defense.

The company announced Dec. 16 that it raised $50 million in a Series B round from a mix of new and existing investors, including 360 ONE Asset, SBI Investments Co. of Japan, Ronnie Screwvala, Peak XV Partners and Kalaari Capital.

The funding will support a major shift for the company, which has focused primarily on space situational awareness (SSA) services. Digantara operates a network of ground-based sensors for tracking space objects and in January launched its first spacecraft, SCOT, for space-based tracking.

“We are evolving from being just a space domain awareness company to more like a prime that would also focus on other things,” said Anirudh Sharma, Digantara’s chief executive, in an interview.

Those additional efforts include developing platforms for missile tracking using infrared sensors and camera technologies the company has developed. Digantara opened a U.S. office in Colorado Springs earlier this year to focus on that work and was among the more than 1,000 companies recently selected by the Missile Defense Agency for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense contract vehicle, known as SHIELD.

Digantara decided to pursue missile defense because of both its technical capabilities and the much larger addressable market compared with SSA, Sharma said.

“Every defense agency across the world is now looking at space-based capabilities to complement what’s already available on the ground for detection,” he said. “Hence, we are now expanding into that.”

The company plans to develop a prototype missile-tracking satellite over the next 18 months, with a launch scheduled for the third or fourth quarter of 2027. That satellite will be developed in the United States, Sharma said.

Digantara will continue its space situational awareness work, including building additional satellites. Sharma said the company expects to launch 15 such satellites in 2026 and 2027, primarily on SpaceX rideshare missions. Those satellites will be built in India, with the company expanding its facilities there to support a higher production rate.

Sharma said there are synergies between the missile defense and space domain awareness, or SDA, work that helped attract investors.

“We didn’t pitch them as an SDA or a missile defense company,” he said. “Rather, we pitched them as a holistic space domain awareness and space intelligence company that would use similar platforms. It’s the same foundation branching out into adjacent areas.”

“What stood out about Digantara is their commitment to build the full-stack infrastructure,” Sameer Nath, head of venture capital and private equity at 360 ONE Asset, said in a statement. “From the outset, the founding team’s blend of technical expertise and business acumen stood out, an essential combination for long-term success.”

The funding will allow Digantara, which has 120 employees in India, to grow to 250 over the next three quarters. Its U.S. office is expected to expand from five employees to 20 over the same period. Sharma said the company is also considering opening a European office to participate in the European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking program.