SatLeo Labs engineers testing a thermal satellite payload.
Ahmedabad-based spacetech startup SatLeo Labs has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Unicorn India Ventures, with participation from Merak Ventures, Java Capital, and IIMA-CIIE.
The funding will support SatLeo’s thermal satellite mission and AI-powered platform for thermal intelligence applications. The company’s total funding to date is $5.5 million, including a $3.3 million pre-Series A round led by Merak Ventures in 2025.
Founded in 2023 by Shravan Bhati, Urmil Bakhai, and Ranendu Ghosh, SatLeo Labs builds satellites for thermal and visual Earth imaging. The technology tracks climate change, farming conditions, disasters, and defense activity in real-time, collecting data from low Earth orbit (LEO) to monitor crop health, temperatures, wildfire risks, and weather patterns.
Over the past year, SatLeo Labs has grown from 8 to 30 members, including engineers and researchers in satellite missions, thermal sensing, and AI-driven geospatial analytics. The company delivered its first experimental thermal payload, TAPAS-1, within six months, achieving TRL-8 readiness for launch. Pilot projects for urban heat and air pollution monitoring in Ahmedabad and Tumkur impact over 400,000 citizens.
SatLeo Labs’ commercial pipeline has grown, with letters of intent rising to over $42 million from around $15 million within a year. The company competes with PierSight, GalaxEye, and SatSure in India’s spacetech sector.
In 2025, funding in the Indian spacetech sector almost doubled to $157 million from $81 million in the previous year, with over 200 private spacetech companies working across satellites, launch vehicles, communications infrastructure, and downstream data services.
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