Astrome gets ₹64.05 crore from the RDI Fund to build an AI-driven electronic-intelligence satellite constellation
The Technology Development Board has agreed to provide ₹64.05 crore in RDI Fund support to Bengaluru's Astrome for a ₹128.11 crore project to build 50 kg-class AI-ELINT microsatellites, taking the technology from lab prototype to an operational sovereign constellation.
Bengaluru space company Astrome Technologies has signed an agreement with the Technology Development Board (TDB) of the Department of Science and Technology for ₹64.05 crore in support under the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund. The money is for a sovereign, AI-enabled electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellite constellation for national security applications. Reports of the agreement, which cite a Ministry of Science and Technology statement, appeared on 12 November 2026.
The total project cost is put at ₹128.11 crore, so the government's share covers roughly half. Reports say the support is structured as optionally convertible debt rather than a grant. That is the financing model the RDI Fund was designed around: patient, low-cost capital that the company has to repay or convert, not free money.
What Astrome is building
The project has three parts, according to the reports:
- An indigenous ELINT payload that picks up electronic emissions from orbit.
- AI-based ground processing software that turns raw signal captures into usable intelligence.
- Inter-satellite communication links, so the spacecraft can work together as a constellation instead of each satellite operating alone.
The satellites will be 50 kg-class microsatellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The stated aim is to take the underlying technologies from technology readiness level (TRL) 4, roughly a laboratory-validated prototype, to TRL 9, a system proven in actual mission operations. That is the whole path from bench hardware to an operational system, and it is the stretch where Indian hardware start-ups have usually struggled to find capital.
Why electronic intelligence from space matters
Electronic intelligence is the collection and analysis of non-communication electronic signals, mainly the emissions of radars and similar systems. By detecting and characterising those emitters, analysts can work out what kind of equipment is operating, roughly where it is, and how it is being used. Satellites can collect emissions over wide areas from orbit, which is why space-based ELINT has long been a capability of the major space and military powers.
Putting AI in the processing chain is aimed at the main bottleneck in signals intelligence: volume. A constellation sweeping large parts of the globe produces far more raw data than human analysts can sift. Machine-learning classifiers can sort, tag and prioritise emitters so that people spend their time on the signals that matter. Inter-satellite links, in turn, can shorten the delay between a satellite picking up a signal and the data reaching a ground station.
For India, a home-built capability of this kind fits a wider push to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers for strategic space assets. A domestic payload, domestic software and a domestic constellation would give security agencies data whose supply chain and processing they control.
Who Astrome is
Astrome was founded in 2015 by Neha Satak and Horabailu Laxminarayana Prasad and is based in Bengaluru, with Satak as chief executive. The company first became known for plans to beam internet from space. Coverage from 2018-19 described plans to launch a test satellite and then a LEO constellation of around 200 microsatellites for broadband in under-served regions, along with ground-based millimetre-wave wireless products. The newly announced project adds a strategic payload programme to that history.
The company has not published a launch timeline for the constellation, and the reports do not say how many satellites the first phase will include. Those are the details to watch as the project moves from agreement to hardware.
Where the RDI Fund stands
Why it matters
The project brings together three things India's strategic tech policy has been trying to grow: private space hardware, domestic AI capability, and patient public capital that does not crowd out venture investors. If Astrome reaches TRL 9 and flies an operational constellation, India would have a privately built, sovereign space-ELINT capability. That would also make Indian microsatellite and payload makers more credible in a market that has been led by a handful of established players.
The risks are the usual ones for deep-tech hardware: payload performance in orbit, launch availability, and whether government customers commit to buying data once the system works. The optionally convertible debt structure means Astrome will eventually have to show commercial or strategic traction to service or convert the support.
Sources
- https://www.thehansindia.com/business/govt-signs-rs-64-crore-deal-with-astrome-for-ai-enabled-intelligence-satellite-constellation-1141399
- https://www.thehawk.in/news/science/space-science/govt-signs-rs-64-crore-deal-with-astrome-for-ai-enabled-intelligence-satellite-constellation
- https://www.newsage.in/tdb-astrome-ai-elint-satellite-project/
- https://cracktarget.com/current-affairs-12-november-2026/
- https://www.thedefensenews.com/India-Approves-6405-Crore-for-Astromes-Indigenous-AI-Powered-Space-Intelligence-Satellite-Network/
- https://tracxn.com/d/companies/astrome/__ZAcsUxhffa60g7RluaBQqAgnqzZ2RWq0ZTBKJ1aTGFk
- https://www.electronicsforu.com/electronics-startups/innovations-innovators/beaming-internet-from-space-through-astrome
- https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/tdb-pauses-accepting-applications-under-rdi-fund-amid-capital-constraints-126093001270_1.html
- https://yourstory.com/2026/09/tdb-22-projects-rs-1-lakh-cr-rdi-fund-industrialist-sudhir-mehta
- https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=2335322&lang=2®=48