Space Startup Dhruva Space Inks Agreement With French Company Kineis

Dhruva Space and Kineis, a satellite operator based in France, has signed an agreement to create space and ground infrastructure to grow the diversity and effect of satellite-based solutions.

According to the memorandum of association, both firms will go forward in a bilateral relationship in the construction of space assets and the provision of satellite-based services, according to a statement issued by the Hyderabad-based startup.

The agreement calls for the development and production of ground terminals powered by Kineis chipsets, as well as the mutual commercialization of space assets and satellite earth stations to allow satellite-based services.

"The signing of an MoA with Kineis is a reflection of the convergence of goals from both French and Indian Space industries, marking a new phase of growth and collaboration between Kinéis and Dhruva Space,"  said Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO of Dhruva Space.

On Thursday, the agreement was inked at the 2023 edition of Satellite, a space sector conference in Washington.

"This agreement confirms the willingness of Kineis to strengthen the go-to-market strategy in India and democratize access to IoT satellite connectivity worldwide," said Astrid Cousteau, Kineis' Chief Commercial and Business Development Officer.

Kineis' services are operational and provide global coverage with nine satellites in orbit. Dhruva Space produces satellite platforms with multi-payload configurations as part of its space-as-a-service offering, broadening the company's reach to operate with any payload. Dhruva Space successfully launched two CubeSats, Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2, atop ISRO's PSLV-C54 in November of last year.

Dhruva Space is a National Award-winning Space Technology startup that specializes in full-stack space engineering solutions. The firm has offices in Hyderabad, India, and Graz, Austria. We have been actively involved in the development of application-independent satellite systems.

Its objective is to provide satellites, Earth stations, and launch services as a combined solution or separately as a technical solution to power space-based applications on Earth and beyond. The founding team consists of business and technical executives who previously worked with Exseed Space, amg AG, Cisco, and KPMG.