Eight years after its founding, Kepler Aerospace has taken outside money for the first time. Blue Ashva Capital led the $8M seed, with Finvolve India Accelerator co-leading and other investors joining the round.
The company, founded by Navneet Singh and Kiran Sharma, builds an integrated space infrastructure stack spanning satellite systems, avionics, ground infrastructure, mission operations and intelligence delivery. The proceeds will fund the launch of its first six swarming ISR satellites under an Indian defense program.
Kepler has won two IDEX prime contracts to provide swarming Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance constellations to India’s defense space ecosystem, supported by roughly $4M in IDEX grants. As modern warfare becomes information-driven, the company argues, the ability to continuously monitor strategic areas and turn space data into actionable intelligence is critical.
Its Mission Operations as a Service platform already serves nearly all Indian space companies and operates as the primary mission operator for several ISRO satellites, backed by a network of more than 70 ground stations.
The round reflects India’s push to build domestic defense space capability as geopolitical tensions drive demand for persistent, low-latency intelligence from orbit.