First Funding from the Space Venture Fund

Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space has become the first Indian company to receive funding from the ‘Space Venture Capital Fund’ established to boost the country’s space sector. The firm has secured ₹60 crore from the fund, which is managed by SIDBI Venture Capital Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI, under the aegis of IN-SPACe. The total corpus of the fund stands at ₹1,000 crore. Dhruva Space Co-founder and CFO Chaitanya Dora Surapareddy stated that the funds will be utilized to strengthen indigenous satellite manufacturing capabilities, accelerate innovation, and expand infrastructure to international standards.

SIDBI Venture Capital Managing Director and CEO Arup Kumar noted that companies integrating innovation, manufacturing, mission operations, and commercial scalability will emerge as future space leaders. In related developments, IndiGo and Accor announced a strategic loyalty partnership in India to offer benefits to their members. Meanwhile, JBM Electric Vehicles signed a preliminary agreement to supply 500 advanced electric buses to vehicle rental platform DriveN.