At 7, Jammy-born boy entered Guinness records as world’s youngest male webmaster. Now 20, he’s raised $4.3 million to fix a major space communication problem

At 20, Jammu-born entrepreneur Onkar Singh Batra is working on a space technology startup aimed at solving a problem that has long affected satellites in low Earth orbit: staying connected when they move out of range of ground stations. His journey to that point began at seven, when he built his first website, followed by a book at 12, a company at 13 and a satellite at 16.

Batra later moved to Silicon Valley and founded Apolink, a Palo Alto-based startup developing a network of small satellites that could relay data between spacecraft and ground stations. The company has raised $4.3 million from investors, including Y Combinator, and launched its first demonstration satellite on a SpaceX mission in 2026.

From building websites at 7 to a satellite at 16

Born and raised in Jammu, Batra developed an interest in technology early, influenced in part by his father's work in information technology.


At seven, he built his first website and later founded Batra Technologies. By 12, he had written When the Time Stops, while continuing to work on technology projects alongside his school education.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Batra developed an interactive platform, an effort that earned him the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar.

His focus later shifted to space technology. While studying in Class 12 in Jammu, he worked on InQube, a roughly one-kilogram satellite described as India's first open-source satellite. Its design was made publicly accessible so that others could study and build on the technology.

Before completing school, Batra was also invited to teach space systems to engineering students at IIT Jammu.

The satellite problem that sparked his startup

Working on InQube exposed Batra to a challenge facing satellites in low Earth orbit.

Such satellites cannot maintain continuous communication with a ground station because they periodically move beyond its line of sight. This creates communication gaps during which data collected by the spacecraft cannot be transmitted directly to Earth.

For Earth-observation satellites tracking floods, wildfires and other events, such delays can affect how quickly important data reaches the ground.

Batra's solution was to move part of the communication infrastructure into orbit.

From Jammu to Silicon Valley

In 2024, Batra founded Apolink in Palo Alto to develop a space-based communication network.

The startup plans to deploy small satellites equipped with radio and optical communication systems that can act as relay points. The network would allow satellites to exchange and transmit data even when they are outside the direct line of sight of a ground station.

Apolink raised $4.3 million in 2025 from investors including Y Combinator, at a reported valuation of $45 million.

In 2026, the startup reached another milestone when its first demonstration satellite was launched on a SpaceX mission.

At 20, building a communication layer for satellites

Batra's path from a school student in Jammu to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur has been shaped by a series of projects that built on one another.

A childhood interest in computers led to website development, followed by technology experiments, entrepreneurship and satellite engineering. His experience building InQube eventually led him to the communications problem that became the focus of Apolink.

At 20, Batra is now attempting to build a space-based communication layer that could help satellites stay connected even when they move beyond the reach of ground stations.