Optimized builds satellites to focus on Earth, space traffic

The Ahmedabad-headquartered industrial engineering and deep-tech conglomerate Optimized Group's first satellite under development will be used for Earth observation, while the second will focus on space situational awareness, particularly tracking space traffic, managing director Sandeep Shah told ET.

He said the latter would put Optimized in competition with Bengaluru-based space technology startup Digantara.

Optimized operates through separately registered companies, including Optimized Solutions and Bengaluru-based Optimized Electrotech.


The group has started building satellites after working for more than two decades on space payloads, testing infrastructure, electronic assemblies and harnesses. It has received orders for multiple satellites and expects satellite deliveries to become its largest source of space revenue from next year, overtaking payload fabrication and testing.

Optimized is developing the satellite bus at its Ahmedabad facility, while multiple imaging payloads are being built at Optimized Electrotech’s Bengaluru unit. The company is also working on a strategic satellite after winning a challenge under the defence ministry’s Innovations for Defence Excellence, or iDEX, programme.

Shah declined to disclose further details of the strategic satellite, citing the nature of the project, but said it included an assured minimum pilot quantity. The company was among the winners of the first edition of the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX, or ADITI, scheme, which offers grants of up to Rs 25 crore for critical defence technologies.

The group’s earlier space work includes testing infrastructure for payloads on Chandrayaan and the Cartosat satellite series, and work on the engineering model of Mangalyaan’s Mars Colour Camera. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) remains its largest space customer, while orders from private-sector space companies are currently small, Shah said.

Optimized will seek international satellite customers after establishing flight heritage in India. “Every bus has to have a heritage; otherwise, people don’t trust you,” Shah said. “Get heritage from India, get a stamp, and then we can start exploring.”

The company also expects to receive defence export orders worth a few million dollars by the end of this year. Its existing exports largely come from critical infrastructure and embedded electronics projects for customers in sectors such as nuclear energy, automotive systems, and turbochargers.

In defence, Optimized Electrotech manufactures AI-enabled multispectral sights, surveillance equipment and handheld infantry systems. Its customers include the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, ISRO, Bharat Electronics, Bharat Dynamics and Larsen & Toubro Defence, Shah said.

The group has also developed software-defined radios and navigation products, including systems designed to function in environments where global navigation satellite signals are unavailable. Its GNSS navigation product has been supplied to the Navy, while a visual-navigation system is expected to be ready by December.

Shah said the group aims to rank among India’s three largest optronics companies in two to three years.

However, dependence on imported components remains a challenge. Most of the group’s defence products have indigenous content of around 60-65%, although some products have achieved localisation levels of 80-90%. Critical components, including space-grade imaging sensors, still need to be imported.

Optimized plans to develop its own sensors but is at least five years away from bringing one to market, Shah said. India currently lacks the fabrication and semiconductor packaging capabilities needed to manufacture such sensors at scale, though upcoming outsourced semiconductor assembly and test facilities could help address the gap.

The group is expanding its workforce to support the anticipated growth, recruiting from institutes such as the IITs and IIMs as well as organisations including ISRO, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Bharat Electronics.

Optimized Solutions has been profitable since its inception and has funded some of the group’s acquisitions and technology ventures, Shah said. Optimized Electrotech, founded in 2017, began generating revenue only last year after spending its initial years developing technologies and securing certifications.

The group is targeting annual revenue of more than Rs 1,100 crore within three years, driven by defence, space and critical-infrastructure technologies.

It expects its defence vertical to generate more than Rs 500 crore annually, while space and critical infrastructure are each targeted to become businesses of at least Rs 300 crore, Shah said. It is also considering an initial public offering in five years.

“We should be seeing a good IPO, obviously within five years, but when the time is right,” Shah said, adding that the listing would provide an exit opportunity to investors, and strengthen corporate governance and public scrutiny as the group undertakes strategic government projects.

Optimized Solutions and Optimized Electrotech together employ about 174 people, with roughly half the workforce in Ahmedabad, 40% in Bengaluru and the rest in Delhi.