New Delhi. Dedicated to accelerating India’s growing space industry and its integration into the global space ecosystem, Aerospace & Defence innovation catalyst Starburst and the Indian Space Association (ISpA), have formed a new strategic collaboration. Lt Gen Anil Kumar Bhatt (Retd), Director General ISpA and Francois Chopard, Starburst’s CEO & Founder, formalised the collaboration with an official signing, held at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi on April 20, 2024.
This partnership reflects the progress in the India-France Strategic Partnership in defence and space as Starburst’s entry into India follows increased US-India cooperation. The partnership seeks to capitalise on research synergies to enhance sector investment. Specifically, it aims to collaborate on promoting investment and business opportunities, supporting space startups and entrepreneurship, advocating for policies, initiating joint research and development projects, and more.
“ISpA is looking forward to working with an ecosystem of accelerators to enable our space entrepreneurs to unleash their innovative potential in a focused manner so as to meet the requirements of an aspirational India. Towards this evolving a strong accelerator ecosystem dedicated to bringing market opportunities, funds, addressing cash flow challenges would be the most important target area for ISpA,” according to ISpA’s Director General Lt Gen Anil Kumar Bhatt (Retd).
Marked by private sector-led initiatives and dual-use technology adoption, the expanding research and development landscape in India presents a fertile ground for entrepreneurship, particularly in the Defence and Space domain.
“Starburst and ISpA share a vision of helping to ignite the emergence of a vibrant space ecosystem in India, facilitating enterprise creation and nurturing the rapid growth of innovative startups spinning out of the region,” an official statement stated.
With over 140 investments in aerospace, defence, aviation, and enabling technologies startups, Starburst brings its deep space knowledge and proven expertise in building long-lasting and thriving innovation ecosystems in the Aerospace and Defence industry globally.
“This marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between Starburst and ISpA. Together, we intend to build a powerful engine to drive the transformation of India’s space economy by creating startup clusters around India,” said François Chopard. “Starburst will equip local space startups with the necessary business tools to grow and scale their ventures to become future suppliers, attract external capital to de-risk investments, and accelerate development,” he added.
Both Starburst and ISpA will work jointly to encourage the Indian space industry, including startups and micro, small, and medium enterprises as well as industry majors, to enhance research, expedite commercialisation, and develop innovative solutions to meet defence capability requirements. “Through this ecosystem building, the partnership will help elevate talented entrepreneurs and innovators by introducing them to synergies and avenues of collaboration with government and corporate players, thus driving new technologies, business ideas & models,” the statement said.
