Dhruva Space secures ₹105 crore RDIF backing for 500 kg satellites

Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space has secured ₹105 crore under the Research, Development & Innovation Fund (RDIF) to power ‘Project Garud’, a major step towards strengthening India’s private-sector satellite capabilities. The initiative aims to develop a 500 kg-class satellite platform tailored for constellation-scale missions, marking a significant milestone in the country’s growing space ecosystem.

The project is designed to accelerate India’s ability to build scalable, high-performance satellites for both domestic and global markets. The funding will support the development of an indigenous, modular, and mass-producible satellite platform, said an official release on Thursday.

The 500 kg-class architecture is intended to bridge the gap between smaller experimental satellites and larger traditional systems, offering an optimal balance of payload capacity, scalability, and launch efficiency. The platform is being engineered as a standardised, production-oriented system capable of supporting diverse applications, including telecommunications, national security, Earth observation, and emerging data-driven use cases. It is also expected to enable faster deployment cycles and improved manufacturing repeatability.

Dhruva Space plans to use the grant to develop and commercialise this next-generation satellite architecture, addressing a critical gap in India’s space ecosystem. Project Garud will focus on transitioning satellite production to a repeatable, manufacturing-ready model, enabling efficient launch stacking, faster system integration, and quicker deployment timelines.

As part of the initiative, the company will establish infrastructure and industrial processes to support high-volume manufacturing — targeting up to two satellites per day, with an annual capacity of 500-600 satellites.

“Project Garud represents the industrialisation of satellite manufacturing from India,” said CTO and co-founder Abhay Egoor. The grant was formalised during the inaugural Enterprise Technology Evaluation agreement signing under the Centre’s ₹1 lakh crore RDI scheme in New Delhi, added the release.