Why Moon landing is big deal for startups? 🧐

The cascading second order effect on space-tech.

NASA’s 2023 budget was $25.4 Billion & ISRO’s was $1.6 Billion. With such a shoestring budget, ISRO’s moon landing is huge impact on Humanity, the continent & more importantly Indian startups, here’s why ⬇️

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Some quick numbers 🗓️
Chandrayan 3 spent about ₹615 Cr to launch a rover on the south pole of the moon. If you have spent enough time on LikedIn, you know it was incredibly successful. Interestingly, Chandrayan 2 spent ₹978 Cr & Nolan's Intersteller spent ₹1,320 Cr.

Why budget space missions are so important? ⬇️
Skeptics might think - what's so big deal with India doing moon-landing?

First/ Changing global order 🥇
US is no more the global super power with China beating it on most metrics. Out of the three countries who did anything significant in space in a while - one has instable government, other is fighting a war & third one is dealing with conquering the world.

Second/ Growing space race 🚀
The total industry size is $447 Billion & expected to grow to a $1 Trillion by 2030. India's successful landing on the ‘dark side’ of the moon puts it at the spotlight. More governments, space agencies and private players would trust ISRO for moon missions.

Third/ Potential cash-cow for our country 💵
ISRO’s commercial arm earned about $279 million dollars putting 345 foreign satellites in space in the last 9 years. This critical milestone will help ISRO land more private launch contracts. It won't be just cause ISRO's launches costs lesser. It is our forex opportunity.

Fourth/ Collaborating with private players 🇮🇳
We all can agree - ISRO is underfunded at the moment. The only way it can build new tech & scale is brining external capital. This means joint ventures, private technology plays and creating a public-private collaboration to solve cash crunch.

But, it has second order effects 🛰️
Indian space tech startups raised $205 Million in funding in last 9 years. In comparison, e-commerce startups raised ~$600 M in 2023 alone. It's a tailwind for early stage VC funds to invest in space-tech startups.

And, space tech startups have seen success 🚀
Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace launched India's first privatelly built launch vehicle, Vikram-S, into suborbital space. Plus, Dhruva Space has built nanosatellites, Thybol-1 & 2.

Jio & airtel are important partners ✌🏼
The next big growth will come from satellite-based broadband - think SpaceX's Starlink. ISRO's ability to launch low-cost satellite is critical in ensuring we build this in-house and not export domestic capital to the US/ EU agencies.

Interesting times we live in India.
There are decades when nothing happens and there are few years where so many things are happening as India eyes to become a 7.5 Trillion economy by 2030.

Are you building an internet first product?
You will encounter three major roadblocks. First, access to capital. Second, building the right product & third, solving distribution. Go to the rabbit hole to get answers to most of these 3 problems.

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