Gaurav SethGaurav is CEO and Cofounder of PierSight. He spent nine years at Indian Space Research Organization developing several SAR applications for EO and multiplanetary missions
Vinit BansalVinit is Cofounder and CTO of PierSight. He brings over nine years of experience in prototyping and commercialization of space and defense tech.
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When you’re building something as ambitious as a satellite constellation to monitor the oceans in real time, it matters who’s with you in the control room.
Today, we’re thrilled to share some news. We recently welcomed long-term strategic partners to our already stellar group of investors, bringing our total funding to $8 million.
This is not a bridge round.
We’ve been fortunate to have strong financial footing and a clear path toward our Series A raise, which is on the horizon. So this wasn’t about runway.
This was about people.
We had the opportunity to partner with individuals and institutions who not only understand what we’re building, but deeply connect with why we’re building it.
That alignment made it a clear decision to bring them on board.
Why We Raised and Who’s On Board
Over the past few months, we've been in conversation with investors and operators who aren’t just watching the space + ocean intersection - they're on the frontlines of it. When the opportunity arose to add mission-aligned partners to our journey, we leaned in. Not because we needed more capital, but because we needed the right collaborators for the road ahead.
The Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), and its venture arm Seabird Ventures, has been building the backbone of the blue economy - investing in startups tackling the oceans’ biggest challenges. Their belief in the need for visibility and accountability of the oceans closely mirrors our own. Their investment is both a validation of our approach and a signal that our ability to combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and detect oil spills is timely and needed.
We’re also excited to welcome CE-Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Crescent Enterprises, a UAE-based conglomerate.
One of their subsidiaries, Gulftainer, is the Middle East’s largest privately owned independent port operator. This is a clear case of investor and customer overlap - and that matters a great deal. In our conversations with the Gulftainer team, it became evident that the real-time maritime insights we’re building directly align with their operational needs. Having them on board is not just capital; it’s conviction from a potential user.
And finally, we’re incredibly grateful to have leading technology operators like Nandan Reddy (Co-founder, Swiggy), Natasha Malpani Oswal (Investor, Boundless), and Sahil Lavingia (Founder, Gumroad) join us. These are people who have built and scaled products, cultivated communities, and stayed true to their vision even when it was hard. Their perspectives will be invaluable as we grow.
What We’re Building - and Where We’re At
We’re in permanent build-mode. Every week feels like a sprint toward a critical milestone - because it is.
Here’s a snapshot of where we are across our core programs.
Varuna 2.0 - Our first Commercial Satellite
Our first commercial satellite is scheduled to launch mid- 2026. It will be the world’s first SAR + AIS satellite, equipped with AIS-2.0 (VDES). This marks the beginning of our maritime-focused constellation - a persistent, all-weather eye on the oceans.
There’s strong interest from NGOs and private companies across shipping, insurance, port management, and ocean conservation. There’s also significant attention from government agencies and coastguards for EEZ monitoring and oil spill detection.
The interest is high, and so is our bar for execution.
Drone SAR
Our drone-based SAR program is progressing rapidly. We’ve conducted successful trials and demonstrated signal processing algorithms for image formation as well as motion compensation algorithms. The foliage penetration capability has also been demonstrated - an important win that opens up new use cases in border surveillance and disaster response.
We’re targeting a Q4 2025 launch. Testing is underway with promising results, and we’ll be sharing more technical deep dives soon.
MATSYA
With MATSYA, we’re unlocking new value from SAR data for maritime use cases. Our goal is to build our internal capability to process large volumes of SAR + AIS data and turn them into actionable maritime intelligence.
Whether it’s identifying IUU fishing hotspots or mapping oil spills in near-real time, we believe the insights generated through MATSYA will define the next wave of ocean intelligence.
Target launch: Q4 2025.
Milestones We’ve Hit
- Varuna 2.0 Antenna: Design and manufacturing is complete. It’s now heading into testing at the Compact Antenna Test Facility in ISRO.
- Preliminary Design Review (PDR): We’ve wrapped up PDR for the full spacecraft and are gearing up for Critical Design Review (CDR).
- Creative Destruction Lab: We recently graduated from the CDL Atlantic Class of 24/25 (Oceans Stream) - a global program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies.
Earlier this year, we shared more details about all these programs. Read the previous update.
Building the Right Team
We are making a lot of progress, have set milestones for ourselves, and are aggressively moving towards them.
In the last few months, we made some stellar additions, including:
Tanmay Marathe, who has joined us as Lead Systems Engineer. An IIST alumnus with over 12 years of experience at URSC (ISRO), Tanmay has led Spacecraft Mechanical Systems and served as Systems Architect for Spacecraft Bus. His experience in building flight-qualified hardware is already proving invaluable.
Nikhil Kanugo, our Senior RTL Engineer, brings over 7 years of experience in FPGA design and verification. His deep expertise will be crucial as we scale our onboard processing systems.
And we’re still hiring.
If you’re someone who dreams of building space technology that has a direct and meaningful impact on the planet, we want to hear from you. Here are some of the open roles we’re actively hiring for:
- ... and more. See all open roles.
If you don't see an opening that’s an exact match, write to us anyway.
Looking Ahead
We set out to solve one of the biggest blind spots on Earth: our oceans. And every day, we're getting closer to doing just that.
But there’s still a long way to go.
But with the right partners on our side and a growing team that believes in this mission as much as we do, we're confident we’ll get there.
If you're reading this and want to collaborate - whether you’re in tech, policy, conservation, or just curious - reach out. We’re always open to new connections.
And to everyone who's believed in our mission - from early supporters to our newest partners - thank you.
Gaurav & Vinit
Co-founders, PierSight
Written by
Gaurav Seth
Gaurav is CEO and Cofounder of PierSight. He spent nine years at Indian Space Research Organization developing several SAR applications for EO and multiplanetary missions
Written by
Vinit Bansal
Vinit is Cofounder and CTO of PierSight. He brings over nine years of experience in prototyping and commercialization of space and defense tech.