Building a Bridge for Satellites in Orbit
At 20, Onkar Singh Batra is working on a problem that has long challenged the space industry: keeping satellites in low Earth orbit connected to ground stations once they move beyond the line of sight. His solution, developed through his Palo Alto-based startup Apolink, involves deploying a network of small satellites equipped with radio and optical communication systems to act as relay points, enabling continuous data transmission between spacecraft and Earth.
Apolink, which Batra founded in 2024, has raised $4.3 million in an oversubscribed seed round at a reported valuation of $45 million. Investors include Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Rebel Fund, and Maiora Ventures, as reported by both The Economic Times and India Today. The company's first demonstration satellite, IPoS-TDsM, was launched on SpaceX's Transporter-17 mission on July 7, 2026, from Vandenberg Space Force Base. After deployment, Apolink announced it had made contact with the satellite in orbit.
A Long String of Early Achievements
Batra's path to space technology began in Jammu, where he was born and raised. His father's work in information technology provided early exposure to computers. At age 7, he built his first website and later entered the Guinness records as the world's youngest male webmaster, a recognition also noted by India Today, which cites The World Record Certification Authority. By 12, he had written a 49-page book titled 'When The Time Stops,' which challenged Einstein's time dilation. At 13, he started his first company, and in 2018 he founded Batra Technologies, followed by United India Publishing in 2019.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Batra helped create an interactive web platform connecting people with doctors and providing COVID-19 information, developed with support from doctors at Government Medical College Jammu. This effort earned him the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, awarded by the President of India.
While in Class 12 in Jammu, Batra developed InQube, a roughly one-kilogram satellite described as India's first open-source satellite. Designed around a 1U CubeSat platform, its proposed missions included testing whether a lightweight satellite could function in space and collecting temperature-related data. This work positioned him for further involvement in space research, including roles as Guest Project Facilitator and Coordinator for the Satellite Development Program at IIT Jammu, as well as a research intern at I2EDC and Visiting Researcher at CSIR-IIIM.
From School to Silicon Valley
Batra completed high school in New York and briefly attended Penn State University before leaving to pursue entrepreneurship. During this period, he also founded onXr Labs, described as a hybrid development lab exploring ideas across AI, space, and biology. In 2024, he moved to Silicon Valley and founded Apolink.
His trajectory, marked by a series of projects that built on one another, has been noted by both The Economic Times and India Today. While The Economic Times emphasizes the technical problem Apolink aims to solve and Batra's progression from early milestones, India Today highlights the inspiration his story offers, noting that his achievements "take the race to another level." Both sources agree on the core details of his journey, from the early website to the recent satellite launch.
As Apolink continues to develop its relay network, Batra's work represents a significant step toward addressing the communication gaps that have long hindered low Earth orbit operations.