- ByStartupStory | February 10, 2024
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled an accelerator programme aimed at nurturing early-stage and mature startups in the spacetech sector to enhance their development. The programme, developed in collaboration with Telangana’s startup incubator T-Hub and Minfy, seeks to support startups with insights into business establishment, fundraising strategies, pitch presentations, foundational AWS knowledge, and advanced cloud architecture, AWS announced in a statement.
Startups will be selected based on their innovation skills, product-market fit, value proposition in spacetech innovation and space sustainability, creative application of AWS technology to solve problems, and their ability to execute on identified opportunities.
Shalini Kapoor, AWS India’s director and chief technologist, stated, “The launch of AWS’s first space accelerator for India-based startups directly supports our commitment to the Indian space industry through our MoU with ISRO, and IN-SPACe, announced last year. India has world-class talent in the space sector, and we look forward to collaborating with ISRO, IN-SPACe, T-Hub, and Minfy through this initiative to nurture space-tech innovation in the country.”
Clint Crosier, AWS’s aerospace and satellite director, emphasized the critical role of cloud computing for the future of spacetech startups. He noted that cloud computing enables these startups to utilize high-performance computing resources for intensive data analysis, apply machine learning models, and innovate in their missions, while achieving lower cost of operations, faster time-to-market, and deployment at scale.
Last September, AWS signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) to support spacetech innovations through cloud computing. The MoU aimed to provide Indian spacetech startups, research institutes, and students with access to cutting-edge cloud technologies to accelerate the development of new solutions in the space sector.
According to Inc42’s Indian Spacetech Startup Landscape & Market Opportunity Report 2023, the sector is projected to reach $77 billion by 2030 at a 26% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
