IIT Bombay-incubated spacetech startup InspeCity, which is building technology for satellite life-extension, announces that it has secured a $ 5.6 million (about Rs XX) seed funding round, led by Ashish Kacholia and participation from Speciale Invest, Shastra VC, Antler India, DeVC, MGF-Kavachh and Anicut Capital.

Its objective is to concentrate on developing solutions for in-space servicing, assembly, manufacturing (ISAM), and in-space propulsion.

The Mumbai-based startup announced that it plans to utilize the funds for further research and development and to advance towards commercialization. It aims to create a completely vertically integrated life-extension platform, where propulsion, robotics, and rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) technologies are developed in-house.

Arindrajit Chowdhury, CEO of InspeCity and professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay says, “We will conduct a demo mission in 2027 during which it will fly a satellite to space and test its propulsion systems.”

“We’re targeting a global market known as ISAM. It’s projected to be about $14 billion by 2030, growing strongly. We want to corner that with VEDA (Vehicle for Life Extension and De-orbiting Activities) as a global offering, and also by selling propulsion systems,” adds Arindrajit.

Arindrajit says the satellite level; there’s been only one successful life-extension or refueling mission so far—done by Northrop Grumman around 2020. Despite big investments, like NASA’s multi-billion-dollar refuelling and capture mission, the technology hasn’t matured to TRL-9 universally. It’s still early days. There’s a massive opportunity for a new player to capture this market.

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The US and Europe are important markets for spacetech, Southeast Asia and West Asia are coming up as major hubs. Last year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese startup Orbital Lasers to explore laser-based solutions for removing space debris.