SpectraGaze Systems, an Ahmedabad company that designs optical imaging sensors for satellites and defence equipment, has raised ₹3.7 crore (about $389,000) in a seed round led by GVFL, the Gujarat-based venture capital firm. Angel investors, who were not named, also took part. The round was announced on 23 October 2026.
Inc42 listed the deal in its weekly tally of Indian startup funding for 19 to 23 October. The company did not disclose a valuation or the size of the stake it sold.
What SpectraGaze does
SpectraGaze develops optical imaging sensors and electro-optical payloads, the camera and detector systems that satellites, aircraft and scientific instruments use to capture images in visible and infrared light. Its stated aim is to build these components in India and reduce the country's dependence on imported detectors for space, defence and research programmes.
The company was founded in 2023 by Arup Banerjee, a former scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with 23 years of experience. It counts ISRO, the Physical Research Laboratory and the electronics manufacturer Kaynes Technology India among its customers.
According to the announcement, SpectraGaze has delivered an infrared detector and a test system to ISRO. It also won, with the US instruments group AMETEK, a contract to supply an image sensor for an ISRO satellite programme, and it won a challenge under iDEX PRIME, the Indian defence ministry's innovation scheme, for an infrared detector cooling assembly.
First outside money
Until this round, SpectraGaze funded itself through customer contracts. Banerjee said that building the business on customer-funded programmes had helped prove its technology before it raised outside capital.
Mihir Joshi, managing director of GVFL, said the investment would help SpectraGaze strengthen its engineering capabilities. KeeVurds described the seed round as the company's first external raise after three years of customer-funded operations.
SpectraGaze said it will use the money for product development, to deliver its existing customer programmes, to hire more engineers, to upgrade its testing facilities and to build out business development.
The round was one of the smallest in Inc42's count for the week, in which Indian startups raised more than $184m across 17 deals. It was one of two hardware deals in that list, alongside a $1m seed round for Paar Autonomy, while AI companies took the largest share of the money.
What comes next
One near-term milestone is a hyperspectral imaging camera for a small 3U satellite, which the company is due to deliver to Kaynes Technology in November 2026, according to KeeVurds. Hyperspectral cameras record many narrow bands of light, which lets operators tell apart materials, crops or minerals from orbit.
KeeVurds pointed to two risks: the company relies on a handful of institutional customers, and its runway is short if the November delivery slips. For a hardware company at this stage, the test will be turning its first government and industry contracts into repeat orders.
Company website: spectragaze.com