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Bengaluru-based spacetech startup SatSure has acquihired SaaS company CropTrails for an undisclosed amount. Spacetech Startup SatSure Acquihires CropTrails To Foray Into Africa, SEA And LATAM

The acquisition will help SatSure expand further and foray into international markets including Africa, LATAM and SEA. SatSure will also add CropTrails’ data to its proprietary algorithms to grow its learning rate. 

According to the startup, it will convert CropTrails into a no-code platform for IT teams of agribusinesses to rapidly prototype and build their in-house tool that can be easily integrated with SatSure Sparta’s datasets. 

Founded in 2017 by Prateep Basu, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani and Abhishek Raju, SatSure uses satellite remote sensing, machine learning and big data analytics to solve problems at the nexus of sustainability of food, water, and energy security. 

SatSure has three offerings:

• SatSure Sparta– a platform for agriculture and climate insights
• SatSure SAGE – a life cycle risk monitoring and business intelligence product offering for the agriculture financial services
• SatSure SKIES – a high-res satellite imagery-based infrastructure change detection platform.

The spactech startup claims to have a monthly recurring rate of $0.5 Mn and is aiming to attain an ARR of $5 Mn this fiscal year (2022).

In February this year, the spacetech startup raised $5 Mn of funding in a Pre-Series A round. The round was in continuity with its undisclosed fundraise in November 2021 that was led by Baring Private Equity India.

Other investors including Asian Development Bank’s venture arm ADB Ventures, Flowstate VC, Force Ventures, IndigoEdge Advisors, Toch.ai, Duro Capital’s Nishchay Goel, LuckBox Ventures and xto10x Technologies’ Saikiran Krishnamurthy on the startup’s captable also participated in the Pre-Series A round. 

The Burgeoning Indian Spacetech Industry 

According to an ISRO report, India accounts for about 2% of the space economy with a potential to capture 9% of the global market share by 2030. The Indian space tech market is expected to reach $77 Bn by 2030. 

The country’s spacetech market has burgeoned as new players have entered. In February this year, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh informed that 75 startups were registered with DPIIT under the space technology category.

He further added that the numbers could be higher as spacetech startups were also registered under other categories.

In addition to this, the MoS stated that the Indian government was looking to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to boost investment in the space sector.

In January 2022, Hyderabad-based spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace raised $4.5 Mn in a bridge funding round led by Ram Shriram’ VC firm Sherpalo Ventures and Wami Capital. 

The round also saw participation from existing investor Neeraj Arora and former Google executive Amit Singhal.

In May 2021, Indian spacetech startup Agnikul raised $11 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Mayfield India.

The round saw participation from existing investors including pi Ventures, Speciale Invest and Artha Venture Fund along with BEENEEXT, Globevestor, LionRock Capital, and angel investors Anand Mahindra, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Nithin Kamath, Abhishek Singhania, Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan, Anicut Angel Fund and LetsVenture.