Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Microsoft signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to fuel the growth of space technology start-ups in India. The MoU seeks to empower space tech start-ups across the country with technology tools and platforms, go-to-market support and mentoring to help them scale and become enterprise ready. 

The collaboration aims to strengthen ISRO’s vision of harnessing the market potential of the most promising space tech innovators and entrepreneurs. Through this tie-up, the space tech startups identified by ISRO will be onboarded onto the Microsoft for Start-Ups Founders Hub platform, which claims to support start-ups at every stage of their journey from idea to the unicorn. 

Through the hubs, space-tech start-up founders in India are expected to have free access to the tech tools, and resources they need to build and run their businesses. This includes technical support to build and scale on Azure, best-in-class developer and productivity tools like GitHub Enterprise, Visual Studio Enterprise and Microsoft 365 and access to smart analytics with Power BI and Dynamics 365. 

S Somanath, the Chairman of ISRO, said, “ISRO’s collaboration with Microsoft will greatly benefit space tech start-ups in their analysis and processing of vast amounts of satellite data for various applications, using cutting-edge methods like AI, machine learning and deep learning.”

“The Microsoft for Start-Ups Founders Hub is a useful platform to bring start-ups and technology solutions providers together to support the national space technology ecosystem. We are pleased to work together to assist and support entrepreneurs to benefit the Indian economy as a whole,”

Anant Maheshwari, President of Microsoft India, said, “Space tech startups in India are playing a significant role in advancing the country’s space capabilities with the power of technology. We are pleased to collaborate with ISRO to accelerate this transformation of what’s possible in space.”