He said the latter would put Optimized in competition with Bengaluru-based space technology startup Digantara.
Optimized operates through separately registered companies, including Optimized Solutions and Bengaluru-based Optimized Electrotech.
The group has started building satellites after working for more than two decades on space payloads, testing infrastructure, electronic assemblies and harnesses. It has received orders for multiple satellites and expects satellite deliveries to become its largest source of space revenue from next year, overtaking payload fabrication and testing.
Optimized is developing the satellite bus at its Ahmedabad facility, while multiple imaging payloads are being built at Optimized Electrotech’s Bengaluru unit. The company is also working on a strategic satellite after winning a challenge under the defence ministry’s Innovations for Defence Excellence, or iDEX, programme.
Shah declined to disclose further details of the strategic satellite, citing the nature of the project, but said it included an assured minimum pilot quantity. The company was among the winners of the first edition of the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX, or ADITI, scheme, which offers grants of up to Rs 25 crore for critical defence technologies.