By Vasudevan Sridharan | 2026-06-09

Indian startups and new-age firms are increasingly turning to Singapore in hopes that the city-state's capital, robust manufacturing base and growing satellite ecosystem can help to power the nation's ambitious commercial space push.

At Singapore’s inaugural Space Summit in February, senior government officials, startup founders, and investors from India fervently pitched India as one of the world’s next major commercial space markets.

Spearheading the effort was the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), the nodal state agency tasked with opening India's space ecosystem to private participation after decades of domination by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

India had just one registered space startup in 2014. In 2020, the Indian government officially opened the space sector to private enterprises.

Since this policy overhaul, more than 400 registered space startups have been launched in India, working in areas such as launch systems, satellite manufacturing, analytics, propulsion, and Earth observation.

India now wants to grow its space economy from its current $8.4 billion to $44 billion by 2033. Officials hope that global collaborations and overseas investment could bring in a significant segment of this growth.

Singapore is emerging as one of the key partners in that strategy.

"India and Singapore’s space sectors not only have a shared history of collaboration but also complementary strengths," said research analyst Mriganika Singh Tanwar of the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS).

"Space-based environmental monitoring satellites that focus on radio frequency collection, inter-satellite data relay systems (ISRS), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and electro-optical imagery technologies are a potential area of expanding cooperation," she told BlueShift.

"Singapore has established a niche in Earth observation nanosatellites and microsatellites," Tanwar said. "India, on the other hand, specializes in cost-effective small and medium Earth observation satellites, particularly equipped with multi-sensor payloads."

She noted that "another segment in the global space economy that has captured attention is supply chain, transportation and mobility (SCTM)."

"Given the recent geopolitical uncertainty in supply chains and demand from both India and Singapore to diversify their critical supply chains, cooperation in this segment is particularly favorable," Tanwar said.

"International space diplomacy is another area of potential cooperation between India and Singapore."

Growing cooperation

Last September, the two countries entered into a formal space cooperation agreement.

Signed by Singapore’s Office for Space Technology and Industry and IN-SPACe, the deal encompasses areas from policy and law to satellite communications and Earth observation technologies.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong highlighted that India already had launched more than 20 Singapore-made satellites.

That operational relationship is now expanding into investment and industrial collaboration.

Singapore sovereign wealth funds GIC and Temasek have become major backers of Indian space startups, particularly Skyroot Aerospace, which recently became India’s first unicorn space-tech startup after a funding round in May this year.

Simultaneously, the Indian government has been rolling out policy incentives such as a $522.2 million (INR 50 billion) Technology Adoption Fund, much of which is allocated to space startups, as well as grants for early-stage startups.

It has set up a $104 million (INR 10 billion) dedicated venture capital fund for the space sector with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which is set to begin investments in early 2027.

To attract overseas capital, the government also has relaxed foreign direct investment rules in segments of the space sector.

For Singapore, the growing partnership arrives at a time when the city-state is rapidly expanding its own commercial space ambitions.

In February, Singapore announced its first national space agency, the National Space Agency of Singapore, as it seeks to position itself as a regional hub for satellite applications, financing, advanced manufacturing, and space governance.

"There is also a recent interest and potential for investment in space tech partnerships from private family offices and venture capital firms in Singapore," Tanwar told BlueShift.

This "will give much-needed support to the private sector and start-ups, significantly supporting New Delhi’s ambitious plan to grow its space economy."

Asian powers, global clout

Unlike India, Singapore is unlikely to become a launch power. But it possesses strengths India wants: sophisticated capital markets, precision engineering, aerospace manufacturing, AI capabilities and access to global investors.

Singapore hosts around 70 space-related firms employing about 2,000 professionals across the value chain.

Experts increasingly view the two economies as complementary, rather than competitive, which could prove important for Asia’s wider space ambitions.

India offers low-cost launch capabilities, engineering scale, and a large talent pool, while Singapore provides financing, downstream applications, and global commercial connectivity.

"Despite a greater push from the Indian government towards space technology development, commercially viable products have been absent from the private space sector in India," Tanwar said.

"One of the major bottlenecks in the space sector responsible for this is the lack of investment in research and development."

"This is where Singapore comes in," she told BlueShift. "It has a track record of servicing global clients and has been an R&D hub in the Indo-Pacific region. Major global satellite servicing firms are headquartered in Singapore."

Space systems are increasingly viewed as critical infrastructure.

Across Asia, governments are racing to expand satellite capabilities for various aims, including maritime surveillance, disaster response, telecommunications and geospatial intelligence.

Against this backdrop, India is positioning itself as Asia’s affordable launch and manufacturing hub, particularly for the fast-growing small satellite market.

It is developing a dedicated small satellite launch infrastructure, including a new launchpad in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Singapore, meanwhile, is trying to become the region’s coordinating and financing center for commercial space activity, leveraging its reputation in global finance, logistics and regulation.

The solidifying bilateral relationship mirrors broader geopolitical shifts in Asia, as nations seek to diversify their space partnerships and build resilient regional ecosystems.