Sovereign program design
Architecting national space programs from political mandate and budget envelope through mission concept and procurement structure to on-orbit hand-over.
Mahesh Murthy.
Strategy, capital and the ideal of sovereignty. Mahesh leads the work of turning a global aspiration into a funded, delivered program.
At a glance
- · Co-founder, 2018
- · CEO, Satellize
- · Based in Mumbai & Dubai
- · Speaks and writes publicly on space policy
Profile
Three decades at the intersection of technology and capital.
Mahesh co-founded Satellize (then Exseed Space) in 2018 with a deliberately uncomfortable thesis: that India and the Middle East had the engineering and the talent to build a global private space company that could put technological capability into the hands of over a hundred nations around the world that had been denied the benefits of a space strategy. It soon transpired that the rest of the world had been waiting for exactly such a solution.
Mahesh's career began in sales, advertising and marketing, where he built a reputation for persuasive communication — including award-winning short-film work that has appeared at Cannes Lions and other international festivals. He moved from that into the internet-era, helping launch Amazon.com and Yahoo.com globally from the US in the 1990s. Mahesh also did a couple of stints in television broadcasting, launching MTV in India and then running its rival Channel V, till its sale to Newscorp in 2001.
Mahesh then helped create India's first institutionalized VC fund, Seedfund.in, where he helped kick-start the internet-fueled entrepreneurship revolution in the sub-continent.
Mahesh has also been a columnist for WSJ.com, BusinessWorld and BusinessToday, and, in addition, starred in the Shark-Tank-like investor roles in shows on Zee TV, ET Now and Bloomberg TV.
Through several angel and venture funds, Mahesh has backed more than 80 startups across India, UAE, the US and Europe. These are across consumer, software and deep tech.
Alongside Satellize, Mahesh owns and runs Unstrat, the world's largest non-aligned prime supplier of strategic and defence-related capabilities to nations and enterprises, with over 80 products from 10 world-class manufacturers. He also continues to run Pinstorm, the outcome-based marketing firm he founded in 2004, and writes and speaks publicly at maheshmurthy.com.
At Satellize today he leads the global outreach for Satellize — anchoring the conversations with governments, ministries and space agencies on the benefits of sovereign space efforts that can turn distant dreams into funded, delivered constellations and ground stations.
Mahesh is based in Dubai and also spends time at the other locations of the company: Amsterdam, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Areas of focus
Capital & financing
Three decades structuring growth and project capital across Indian and emerging-market institutions — early-stage funds, growth equity, sovereign and family-office capital.
Institutional credibility
Long-standing working relationships with ISRO, the Department of Space, the Ministry of External Affairs and counterpart agencies across South Asia, the Gulf and the Pacific.
Public communication
An IIM-A and Stephens College alumnus, copywriter, columnist and award-winning film-maker — Mahesh has been a sustained public voice on Indian technology, capital formation and now sovereign space.
Selected milestones
1980s — 90s
Began career in advertising and copywriting; later moved into building and funding India's first generation of internet-era technology companies.
2000s — 10s
Founded and operated several venture and growth funds, backing more than fifty Indian startups; long-running columns on technology and capital in the Indian press.
2018
Co-founded Exseed Space with Ashhar Farhan; led the first capital round and the launch-services agreements that put Exseed Sat 1 on Falcon 9.
2018
India's first private satellite (Exseed Sat 1) reaches orbit on SpaceX Falcon 9 — SSO-A.
2019
Exseed Sat 2 / AISAT becomes the first private satellite launched from Indian soil on PSLV-C45.
2020
Established the Hyderabad ISO Class 7 cleanroom and integration facility; presented the sovereign-program case at DefExpo 2020.
2022
Negotiated and stood up the Tonga sovereign program after the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption.
2024
Led the rebrand of Exseed Space to Satellize, around the sovereign-capability thesis.