This 24 Year Old From Surathkal Wants To Make Satellites Obsolete | Ft.Shreepoorna Rao, Arctus Aerospace | Episode 21

A 24-year-old from Surathkal is building a 45,000-foot aircraft that could end India's dependence on foreign satellites and global investors are already betting big on him.Meet Shreepoorna Rao, founder of Arctus Aerospace and one of India's youngest deep-tech founders. Fresh out of IIT Madras, he's building unmanned aircraft that fly for 24 hours straight, capture centimetre-level imagery from the stratosphere, and deliver earth-observation data at a fraction of what satellites cost. In this in-depth Kannada conversation, Shreepoorna walks us through the engineering behind Arctus, how he raised $2.6M in a pre-seed round backed by Balaji Srinivasan, Version One Ventures, and South Park Commons, and what it really takes to build hard tech in India straight out of college. If you're a founder, engineer, student, or anyone curious about India's aerospace and defence-tech revolution, this episode is for you.What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why satellites are no longer the smartest way to do earth observation✅ How Arctus's aircraft delivers 95% cheaper imagery than space-based systems✅ The real story behind raising a global pre-seed round as a 23-year-old✅ How a failed crypto startup quietly funded the first aerospace experiments✅ Why defence, oil & gas, agriculture, and insurance are the first big customers✅ What it takes — mentally and financially — to build hardware at software speed in IndiaCheck out RV Campus Mysuru: https://mundhebanni.short.gy/9FuioL------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Support Mundhe Banni: https://mundhebanni.org/en/patronhttps://linktr.ee/mundhebanniMundhe Banni Website: www.mundhebanni.orgFor Monthly Update on Startups & Entreprenuership in Kannada Subscribe to Mundhe Banni Newsletter:https://mundhebanni.org/newsletterJoin Mundhe Banni WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/J4Pwge8FIG13zO2S3cHsAq?mode=gi_tSubscribe to Mundhe Banni Academy:https://youtube.com/@mundhebanniacademy?si=eE4qKbsTeWB-s2Oz------------------------------------------------------------------------------------About the guest:Shreepoorna S Rao is the 23-year-old founder of Arctus Aerospace, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech company building India's first commercial mid- and high-altitude long-endurance unmanned aircraft. An IIT Madras alumnus from Surathkal, he's leading a 15-engineer team designing aircraft that can replace large parts of the satellite stack at a fraction of the cost. Arctus closed a $2.6M pre-seed round in late 2025, with backing from Version One Ventures, South Park Commons, gradCapital, and angels including Balaji Srinivasan and other global operators.This episode matters because almost every conversation about Indian deep tech defaults to software. Arctus is one of the rare hardware-first stories — built from first principles, by someone who started building aircraft as a child, and who is now competing with companies that have decades of head start. Whether you're tracking the rise of Indian aerospace, the future of unmanned systems, the satellite vs aircraft debate, or just want to understand how young founders raise serious capital for hard problems, this conversation goes deep.Chapters:00:00:00-Trailer00:01:28-Mundhe Banni Intro00:02:30-RV Episodes Integration00:03:00-Meet The 23-Year-Old Taking On The Satellite Industry00:08:08-Why Satellites Are Quietly Becoming Useless00:11:50-The 7th Grader Who Was Already Building Aircraft00:24:00 -nside IIT Madras — Where The Real Story Began00:29:08-"I Used To Be Laughed Out Of Rooms"00:39:18-The ₹3 Crore Crypto Detour Nobody Talks About00:46:00-Walking Away From Placement — And Going All In00:51:22-The Cheque That Changed Everything1:10:42-Why India Is Still Importing What This Aircraft Can Build1:14:58-If This Existed 30 Years Ago, Would Veerappan Have Been Caught?1:37:58-A Message To Every Young Kannadiga Watching This