A wave of younger, deep-tech ventures is redefining India’s area sector, due to ISRO’s growing collaboration with startups and IN-SPACe providing institutional help. From propulsion breakthroughs to payload design, Indian entrepreneurs are not simply service suppliers, they’re changing into pioneers.
This shift comes as area exploration strikes past nationwide delight into industrial viability, low-earth orbit satellites, and communication methods. However even on this quickly rising area, only a few startups are led by girls.
That’s the place N House Tech stands out. Divya Kothamasu, the startup’s founder and director, spoke to AIM in regards to the journey and the challenges.
From CubeSats to helium balloons, RF methods to rocket launches, and even carrying a child throughout state strains to witness a mission, Kothamasu is quietly redefining what a spacetech founder appears like in India.
The Origin Story
Kothamasu’s journey into spacetech started throughout her postgraduate research in communication and radar methods. “As part of the curriculum, we have been launched to CubeSats and small satellites, and I used to be very fascinated that such small issues can do such large duties,” she mentioned.
She launched N House Tech in December 2020 from Andhra Pradesh and later moved to Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills. Initially a one-woman enterprise, the corporate now has a 35-member workforce, together with RF engineers, antenna designers, advertising and marketing veterans, and a former DRDO director.
For Kothamasu, area wasn’t only a profession; it was a convergence of lifelong ardour and household affect. “My father is the top of the division at one of many engineering faculties, and my in-laws have a enterprise background. My life is a mixture of each worlds, perhaps.”
Challenges Persist
But, early challenges loomed massive. “Infrastructure right here may be very costly, and only one spectrum analyser or one community analyser prices an enormous quantity,” defined Kothamasu. “Infrastructure itself prices crores and crores of rupees.”
Recruiting expert individuals in RF methods was one other uphill job. “The preliminary challenges have been establishing an organization the place all of the expert individuals belief us and are available to this firm,” she mentioned.
Attracting the suitable expertise was no small feat in a website the place “the demand is extra”, however “there usually are not many individuals within the RF area”.
On high of that have been the monetary constraints of being a bootstrapped startup. “We don’t need to take any funds from exterior elements,” she mentioned. The need to stay self-reliant, whereas admirable, usually examined her limits. “I have to say a number of occasions, not a few times, I considered quitting.”
Regardless of these trials, Kothamasu credit her resilience to the unwavering help from her household. Even by way of testing, the corporate needed to depend on exterior assist in its early days. “Initially, this was a bottleneck for us. We needed to depend on corporations which have the sort of amenities we required,” she defined.
Tools like sign mills, community and spectrum analysers have been initially past attain. “Now now we have all of the tools, however issues like ESS vibration, not but, since we can’t have them within the centre of town.”
Payloads and Partnerships
N House debuted with a payload launched aboard ISRO’s PSLV-C60 as a part of the POEM-4 mission.
“We needed to check our UHF communication module and have some area heritage for a few of our subsystems,” Kothamasu mentioned. The mission succeeded on the primary try. “We obtained the primary communication hyperlink on 1st January 2025. Each our floor station and ISRO’s floor station obtained the sign.”
To validate methods earlier than they attain orbit, the corporate additionally examined them utilizing high-altitude balloon launches. “To be assured about our methods, we examined our sensor and energy modules to see if our payload may survive the precise state of affairs.”
Partnerships with each ISRO and personal corporations like Skyroot have been essential. “Individuals from IN-SPACe and ISRO have been very cooperative, even within the closing integration stage once we confronted a difficulty, they helped us determine it out.”
For this startup, the near-term purpose is to turn into worthwhile. “We have now invested virtually $1.5 million, and our purpose is to show worthwhile after which transfer into full-stack manufacturing, together with PCBs and mechanical chassis underneath one roof.”
Life at Launch Altitude
As a girl founder in a male-dominated business, Kothamasu doesn’t shrink back from sharing the non-public facet of her journey. “Some prolonged relations even advised me, ‘Why get into such a tough area?’” she recounted.
When her daughter was simply three months outdated, she introduced her alongside to the launch website in Sriharikota. “I took her alongside since she was very younger then, and once more in the latest launch [POEM-4], she got here with me.”
Work-life stability, she says, isn’t optionally available. “Although you might be an entrepreneur, you might be additionally a mum or dad, and as soon as your youngster grows up, their childhood received’t come again.”
Inside N House Tech, she units the tone. “Most entrepreneurs say they don’t have work-life stability, however I don’t encourage all-nighters. I inform my workforce to go dwelling and that they’d do higher the subsequent day with a contemporary thoughts.”
Her recommendation to others getting into aerospace? “It’s robust, however not undoable, keep it up till you get some income.” And to girls? “Give them an opportunity to show whether or not they can do it. I want all the ladies bought the sort of help that I did.”
The submit How N House Tech is Rewiring India’s House Alerts appeared first on Analytics India Journal.
