Entrepreneurs Hariharan Vedamurthy and Sameer Bharat Ram have launched Vaanam, India’s first private space tech accelerator, in Chennai, to support the growth of the local space startup ecosystem.
The Vaanam Space Tech Accelerator aims to transform the space technology startup landscape under the mentorship of Padma Bhushan Nambi Narayanan, a former ISRO scientist, according to a statement.
The advisory board includes industrialist Ravi Mariwala and actor/director R Madhavan.
“There’s a wide gamut of use cases in the space tech sector in general, say from mining satellite data to mining asteroids and there’s an ever-growing demand to bring these use cases to fruition. In India, in recent years, we’ve been seeing many startups sprouting up catering to these demands, yet there’s a whitespace in a solid commercialisation framework to bring these great demands to market,” Vaanam Co-Founder Hariharan Vedamurthy stated.
It aims to expedite space tech innovations and assist startups in achieving product-market fit by providing them with commercial expertise and specialised tools, acting as a springboard for early-stage businesses, the statement noted.
The accelerator was officially launched by Dr TRB Rajaa, Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion, and Commerce, Government of Tamil Nadu. Padma Bhushan Shri Nambi Narayanan attended the event.
“Vaanam, as part of its outreach, will reach out to schools and colleges and create ‘Space Clubs’ to inculcate space thinking amongst students and young people. Workshops will be conducted as part of the club,” said Co-founder Sameer Bharat Ram.
