Our Investment in VyomIC — Rethinking Navigation for a Sovereign, Autonomous Future

The New GPS Problem

For decades, GPS and its international counterparts (GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, NavIC) have quietly powered the modern world — from Google Maps and autonomous drones to telecom infrastructure and financial markets. But these legacy PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) systems are no longer enough.

Spoofing, jamming, and dependency risks have exposed a growing fragility in the global navigation stack. In contested regions, urban canyons, and GNSS-denied zones, these satellite systems often degrade or fail. Even India’s own NavIC constellation — while strategically important — remains limited in scale, compatibility, and reliability.

In a world increasingly shaped by autonomy, precision warfare, and decentralized infrastructure, the question is no longer “how accurate is your GPS?” but rather:

“Can you trust it at all?”

VyomIC — A Resilient Sovereign Stack for Navigation

This is the problem VyomIC is solving.

Short for Vyom (Sanskrit for space) and IC (Indian Constellation), VyomIC is building India’s first and largest private LEO-based PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) satellite constellation. Unlike legacy GNSS systems broadcasting from 20,000+ km above Earth, VyomIC’s constellation will operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) — delivering:

• 100–1000x stronger signals (less vulnerable to jamming)

• Faster convergence (essential for autonomous platforms)

• Centimeter-level positioning and nanosecond-level timing

• Spoofing-proof, encrypted signals for mission-critical use
  

Its architecture is designed from the ground up for the demands of tomorrow’s world — one filled with swarming drones, precision-guided munitions, autonomous vehicles, robotic logistics, and real-time financial systems.

Why Now — The World Is Rethinking Navigation

The global navigation landscape is in crisis—and transition. In 2024 alone, over 430,000 spoofing and jamming incidents were reported, marking a 62% year-on-year spike (according to IATA). Aviation authorities noted a 5x increase in spoofing attacks, causing widespread disruption to flights, drones, and maritime operations. And these figures only account for detected events—the actual threat surface is far greater.

In response, governments are urgently diversifying their navigation infrastructure. In the U.S., the Department of Defense and FCC have openly called for alternatives to reduce critical overreliance on their own GPS.  

India faces its own challenges. The NavIC program has achieved less than 50% satellite deployment, with several partial failures (e.g., NVS-02) and bureaucratic delays. Its use of the S-band (rather than the globally standard L1 band) has also led to poor device adoption—leaving a clear window for private innovation to leapfrog and address the immediate strategic need for resilient PNT infrastructure.

At the same time, the needs of modern platforms are rapidly outgrowing the capabilities of legacy GNSS. GPS delivers 5–10m accuracy and 1 Hz update rates—far too coarse for autonomous vehicles, hypersonic systems, drone swarms, and battlefield robotics. These next-gen applications demand encrypted, high-frequency, centimeter-level precision—exactly the gap VyomIC is engineered to fill.

And the market is only growing faster. By 2033:

• GNSS device shipments are projected to reach 2.2 billion units annually

• Global GNSS revenues are expected to exceed €580 billion, with 80% of that value concentrated in software, services, and augmentation layers

This shift—from hardware to Navigation-as-a-Service—marks the biggest architectural opportunity in global PNT since GPS was first launched.

From Hyperloop to Space: Founders with Execution DNA

VyomIC is led by a founding team that combines bold vision with technical and operational grit.

Vibhor Jain, Lokesh Kabdal, and Anurag Patil previously led Avishkar Hyperloop, India’s premier hyperloop initiative out of IIT Madras. Under their leadership, the team secured $1.25 million in public and private grants, built the world’s largest academic hyperloop test facility—a 422-meter vacuum tube—and was ranked among the top three teams globally in the European Hyperloop Week. After Avishkar, they commercialized massive swarm drone systems for commercial and government use cases. It was during these missions that they first encountered the limitations of GNSS—spotty accuracy, poor indoor coverage, and total collapse in contested zones. That real-world pain led them to start VyomIC.

Why We Backed VyomIC

We met the VyomIC team at a time when India’s space, defence, and mobility ecosystems were rapidly evolving, but lacked reliable positioning and timing infrastructure. Here’s what convinced us to lead the round:

• Market Timing: Globally, the world is moving beyond GPS. India is uniquely placed to build its own sovereign stack — but has no time to waste.

• Full-Stack Innovation: VyomIC isn’t just launching satellites. They’re rethinking the entire PNT stack — atomic clocks, signal architecture, encryption, orbital design, and receivers.

• Sovereign and Strategic: This is the first private LEO-PNT constellation in India, and a critical leap forward in reducing dependence on foreign-owned infrastructure.

• Dual-Use Design: The system is optimized for both civilian precision (finance, mobility, telecom) and strategic use (defense-grade resilience, encrypted signals, jamming resistance).

• Team Execution: From building a hyperloop testbed to orchestrating drone swarms in the field — the team has consistently shipped hardware at scale, under constraints.
  

What’s Next

This fundraise enables VyomIC to finalize and test its PNT payload architecture, laying the technical groundwork for a spaceborne technology demonstration mission. In parallel, they’ll begin building out a core team spanning engineering, orbital systems, and strategic partnerships, while initiating early engagements with India’s defence and autonomous ecosystems—two critical verticals where navigation infrastructure has become a strategic priority.

This is a capital-intensive, complex journey— but one that’s critically needed. And VyomIC is approaching it with first-principles design, lean iteration, and a clear sense of urgency.

India’s Navigation Moment

In the next decade, billions of devices and critical systems will depend on trusted time and location. The world cannot afford fragile, foreign-controlled navigation infrastructure — and neither can India.

We’re proud to be the first backers of VyomIC’s mission to build a sovereign, resilient navigation layer—engineered in India, built for the world.

🚀🛰️🇮🇳🌎

---

About Speciale Invest

Founded in 2017 by visionary partners Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, Speciale Invest is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to backing deep tech founders solving complex global challenges. We invest early — at the pre-seed and seed stages — and partner closely through the zero-to-one journey with capital, strategic guidance, business development, and hiring support.

Our focus spans six transformative themes:

• Energy Transition & Planetary Health

• Advanced Manufacturing & Industrial Modernization

• Beyond Earth & Space Technology

• Advanced Software, Computing & AI

• Biosciences, Life Sciences & Healthtech

• Defence & Secure Systems

We thrive in the risk and complexity of pre-product deep tech ventures and are proud to champion globally relevant companies built from India. Explore our portfolio here.

If you’re building something ambitious and exciting in deeptech or deepscience, we’d love to hear from you: info@specialeinvest.com

We are Speciale Invest - #TheDeepTechVC