Trivandrum boys show the way to a new horizon

"You can take a guy out of Trivandrum, but you can never take Trivandrum out of him."

Sounds like a cliché, but it is an adage that fits the cofounders of space tech startup Hex20 that set up shop at the Techno Park early this year. The startup has a global clientele that comes from places like Japan, Australia and Taiwan, but its roots are here in the Kerala capital.

Lloyd Jacob Lopez, Ashwin Chandran, Amal Chandra, and Aaron Pereira had studied together in Christ Nagar school in Trivandrum but followed their own career paths, ending up in different parts of the globe like the United States and Australia. 

But their continued friendship and online collaboration led to the launch of a space tech startup called Hex20 in Australia with Lloyd as its CEO after he migrated to that country in 2019. 

"The Australian government pumping up their aerospace sector, and we thought why not?" says Lloyd. He had cofounded a software firm called Reflections in 2000 soon after passing out from the University Institute of Technology (UIT). He exited the firm before moving to Adelaide.

Hex20 was selected for a programme conducted by the University of South Australia and gained valuable insights into the aerospace sector as the Australian Space Agency was headquartered in Adelaide.

As the startup started spreading its wings by 2020, the founders realised one thing. Finding expertise and a ready supply chain in Australia was going to be difficult, as the country was just developing an ecosystem. 

It was then the Trivandrum boys realised what a goldmine their hometown was when it came to space tech. This led to the establishment of Trivandrum-based Hex20 as a separate entity, bringing in two CET products Anurag Reghu and Aravind MB as core team members. 

"It is easier to find supporting structure in Trivandrum because there are over 50 companies that have been in the field for years servicing the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Their manufacturing standards have been vetted by ISRO, and we are assured of the quality needed for space sector projects. That is not known well nor marketed as a factor to lure space tech firms to the city," says Anurag.

Another major attraction for basing the company here was the pool of experienced people in the city who have had hands-on experience in space projects. 

Other states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana have been actively wooing space tech firms, but Hex20 chose Trivandrum as it was the home of the cofounders, and they felt it would be wiser to be on familiar territory when the company was setting up a base in India. 

The Australian arm of Hex20 started off moderately with a lunar mission study as the Covid lockdown prevented most outdoor activities in 2020. But as it was done for a consortium involving the Australian Space Agency, the University of Adelaide, and Jet Propulsion Lab from the US, it provided some significant openings. 

This expanded Hex20's international profile and led to collaborations with Nanyang University in Singapore, the UAE space agency for their Flat Sat project, and a lunar project with iSpace, Japan's first private sector space enterprise.

Hex20 currently boasts some prestigious ongoing projects, such as building satellites for Taiwan, tie-up with Japan's iSpace, and participating in a global earth observation mission with the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), a leading non-profit organization for the promotion of scientific research in space internationally. 

Hex20 co-founders admit that their sentimental attachment to their hometown played a significant role in establishing a unit in Trivandrum, but they emphasise it was not the sole criterion. 

All the necessary components for a space tech ecosystem are in place in Trivandrum; it just needs a push to bring everything together. 

Kerala has shown great purpose when it comes to the promotion of sectors like tourism. If the authorities put half of that effort into the space tech sector, it could bring 100x time revenue like the software sector in Kerala, say the Hex20 cofounders.

India lags behind China in many technology areas, but the achievements of our space agencies give India a huge advantage. Like Australia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and others are also looking to develop their indigenous space programmes. This opens a huge market for India, as they will prefer collaborative projects with companies here rather than China, given security concerns.

"India will be one of the top choices for space startups across the globe who are looking for collaborations," says Lloyd. 

Things have already been looking up in that direction, as a delegation from Australian space tech companies visited Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Trivandrum two months back on an exploratory mission under the Australia-India Space Alliance. 

"It was part of an inter-governmental initiative, and the team included space tech firms from across Australia led by The University of South Australia’s startup incubator, the Innovation & Collaboration Centre (ICC). The delegation was impressed by what they saw, and talks on several collaborative projects with Indian firms are ongoing," says Lloyd, who played a key role in the outreach.

Given this, a city like Trivandrum could well become a space tech hotspot if we market our strengths globally. Delegations from places like Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad have already started scouting in foreign countries, but Kerala is yet to undertake such missions, says Lloyd. 

But Hex20 cofounders say their interactions with K-Space, the newly created agency for the aerospace sector, have raised their hopes, as key people in it understand the sector's huge potential within and beyond the borders of India. 

The scope for such firms lies beyond space projects. Existing satellites can provide a lot of data, but the new generation ones with improved sensors can provide specific data for expanding tech fields like agriculture and sustainability. This will see an exponential growth of firms that can take that raw data and analyse it for the consumers. 

"That is a huge market. The deep tech sector is not just launching rockets and satellites. There is a huge chunk of business sitting on the other side, which is yet to come," says Lloyd. 

Hex20 is right now in the business of building hardware, but once things are in place, they plan to be data suppliers to multiple agencies.

The startup is yet to go for outside funding, as the cofounders felt it was not the best idea for an early-stage startup. Now Hex20 has reached a stage where they have to expand, as more projects are in the pipeline. 

The idea of locating the backend work here and manufacturing elsewhere may not be ideal for such space sector firms, as there has to be constant interaction with the labs and manufacturers. 

Till now, as the only major consumer was ISRO, Trivandrum had an advantage. But a whole wide world of space tech business is opening up.

For example, Hex20 now is designing and building hardware and software for Taiwan satellites from their Trivandrum unit. They have seven permanent employees and around ten others contracted for certain specific tasks and expect revenue of around 1.1 crore rupees in the coming financial year.

If authorities move quickly enough, this firm could herald the arrival of more space tech firms in Trivandrum with a clientele that dots the Asian region and beyond.

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