Bengaluru Startup Plans Satellite Network for Precision Navigation

Three engineers who once built a 422-metre hyperloop test track at IIT Madras are now aiming for space with a solution to a problem most people don't realize exists.

VyomIC, founded in 2023 by Lokesh Kabdal, Vibhor Jain and Anurag Patil, is developing a satellite constellation designed to guide autonomous machines with precision GPS simply cannot deliver. The Bengaluru startup raised $1.6 million in September 2025 to make it happen.

The problem became clear when the founders were flying drone swarms for government clients. GPS works fine for checking your phone map, but it fails when a drone needs to land on a platform or mining equipment must navigate tight spaces. Current systems are accurate to five or ten metres and update just once per second.

That's because GPS satellites orbit more than 20,000 kilometres away. By the time their signals reach Earth, they're weak enough to jam easily and can't penetrate indoors or dense city streets where buildings bounce signals around.

VyomIC's answer is putting satellites much closer, just a few hundred kilometres up in low Earth orbit. A satellite that close delivers a far stronger signal that's harder to jam and easier to catch indoors. It also races across the sky, helping receivers calculate position much faster.

The team is engineering atomic clocks, encrypted signals and AI-based processing to deliver centimetre-level accuracy. They've adapted real-time kinematic positioning, a correction technique surveyors use in open fields, to work for machines moving through cluttered environments.

Why This Inspires

The applications stretch beyond drones and self-driving vehicles. Satellite navigation systems are essentially extremely accurate clocks in space, and that timing signal keeps financial exchanges, power grids and mobile networks synchronized worldwide. A more precise, resilient system could strengthen critical infrastructure that millions depend on without thinking about it.

India already operates NavIC, its own navigation system built by ISRO. VyomIC positions itself as complementary, targeting applications that need faster updates and tighter accuracy than any current system provides. In August 2024, the founders joined representatives from twenty Indian space startups in meeting the Prime Minister on National Space Day.

The company hasn't launched satellites yet or announced a timeline. Building a constellation is among the most expensive undertakings in the space industry, and their current funding covers engineering rather than spacecraft. But the team has already proven they can tackle ambitious infrastructure projects and identify real gaps in existing technology.

If they succeed, the next generation of autonomous systems won't have to work around navigation failures because the navigation itself will finally keep up.