VMPL
New Delhi [India], February 5: AUM Ventures today announced an investment of USD 500K (pre-seed round) in Sanyark Space, a deeptech space company developing India's first multi-mission Navigation-Communication (NAV-COM) satellite constellation. Sanyark Space is the first company to be funded under the INDIA DeepSpark Deeptech Program, an early-stage deeptech focused initiative led by AUM Ventures.
INDIA DeepSpark Deeptech Program was launched by AUM Ventures on August 15, 2025 to partner early with Indian founders building cutting-edge, IP-led innovation with the potential to compete globally. The first edition of the program, which was partnered with over 15 incubators, including IIT-backed ecosystems and government-supported institutions, attracted more than 400 applications from deeptech founders from all over India.
As part of this partnership, AUM Ventures will participate in Sanyark Space's pre-seed round to support the development of an indigenous, high-precision positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system integrated with secure satellite-based M2M and IoT communications. This NAV-COM satellite platform is designed to enable resilient, high-accuracy PNT services and secure connectivity for next-generation autonomous and other mission-critical applications.
"India's growing dependence on foreign navigation systems is a long-term strategic risk, especially as next-generation applications demand far higher levels of precision, resilience, and trust. Existing GNSS infrastructure alone is no longer sufficient to meet these needs. With jamming and spoofing incidents increasing globally, critical sectors such as aviation, maritime, logistics, telecom, finance, and defence are facing growing operational disruptions" said Chetan Mehta, Founding Partner at AUM Ventures. "We backed Sanyark Space under our INDIA DeepSpark program because it represents the kind of globally competitive and strategically important deeptech innovation we want to see emerging from India,"
Sanyark Space is founded by former ISRO scientists Raghava Kundrapu and Akhileshwar Reddy Peseke. Following his tenure at ISRO, Raghava worked in space technology consulting at Deloitte, combining technical depth with business and strategy experience, while Akhileshwar brings over a decade of technical leadership in GNSS and NavIC systems, including receiver, constellation, and signal design. The founding team has contributed to multiple national flagship programmes, including PSLV, GSLV, NavIC, Chandrayaan, Pad Abort Test missions, and reusable launch vehicle technology development.
"Next-generation systems need an integrated, scalable solution that combines precise centimeter level navigation with reliable connectivity and works seamlessly interoperable with existing solutions" said Raghava Kundrapu, Co-founder & CEO, Sanyark Space. "That is exactly what we are building as a satellite constellation targeting both defence and commercial applications. Our vision is to strengthen India's strategic autonomy in space by building a multi-mission, satellite-based NAV-COM capability that augments existing GNSS systems, especially NavIC, to deliver centimetre(cm)-level positioning and nanosecond(ns)-level timing integrated with Machine-to-Machine / IoT connectivity. We are building for Bharat, and from Bharat, to serve the autonomous world."
Akhileshwar Reddy, Co-founder & CTO, added, "While global GNSS systems such as GPS and Galileo typically offer about 5 metre standalone accuracy, achieving higher precision today requires costly and expensive ground infrastructure like RTK base stations. By integrating LEO satellites with NavIC and other GNSS constellations, we enable high-availability services including high-accuracy positioning, ns-level timing, and machine connectivity, fully interoperable with existing systems, across India and globally."
With this capital, Sanyark Space plans to accelerate constellation design, satellite payload development, and early customer engagements across defence, infrastructure, and industrial applications. The company intends to work closely with public and private stakeholders to enable strategic and commercially scalable NAV-COM infrastructure for India and global markets.
About AUM Ventures
AUM Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on backing Indian entrepreneurs building core IP-led deeptech and technology-enabled companies. The fund's portfolio includes notable investments in spacetech, semiconductors, defence technology, and AI, such as Skyroot Aerospace (launch services), Cosmoserve (space debris management), Azimuth AI (fabless semiconductor for smart metering), Sharang Shakti (defence robotics), and Sully.ai (AI for healthcare).
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