Onkar Singh Batra: Built a website at 7, a satellite at 16, raised $4.3M

Batra’s journey began with early exposure to computing, attributed to his father’s career in information technology. By age seven, he was recognized as the world’s youngest male webmaster by the World Record Certification Authority, having developed multiple websites. At twelve, he authored “When The Time Stops,” a 49-page book engaging with Albert Einstein’s theories on time, earning him recognition as the world’s youngest theoretical author.

Venturing further, Batra founded Batra Technologies in 2018 and United India Publishing the following year. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating urgent digital needs, he collaborated with doctors from Government Medical College Jammu to launch an interactive web platform connecting patients and physicians. For this, he was awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, one of India’s highest national honors for children.

Batra’s interest in space technology crystallized with the development of InQube, a small 1U CubeSat satellite system, under the Paradox Sonic Space Research Agency. InQube not only brought him closer to space research but also highlighted a core challenge: maintaining constant communication with satellites in low Earth orbit, where gaps occur as satellites move beyond ground station visibility.

During his school years, Batra took on multiple research roles, including stints at IIT Jammu as a guest project facilitator and as a visiting researcher at the CSIR–Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, working on projects ranging from embedded systems to image processing for deep-sea specimens. He also established onXr Labs to explore cross-disciplinary ideas in AI, space, and biology.

After completing high school in New York and a brief period at Penn State University, Batra relocated to Silicon Valley. In 2024, he founded Apolink, focusing on building a satellite relay network to deliver continuous connectivity for low Earth orbit spacecraft. The company’s innovative approach uses a hybrid architecture of radio-frequency and optical communications, designed for compatibility with existing satellites without the need for specialized onboard hardware.

Apolink secured $4.3 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round at a $45 million post-money valuation, drawing investment from Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Rebel Fund, Maiora Ventures, and others. On July 7, 2026, Apolink’s first demonstration satellite, IPoS-TDsM, launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-17 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The satellite was successfully deployed, with Apolink confirming contact in orbit. The mission aims to demonstrate backward-compatible RF relay capabilities for existing satellites.

Batra’s journey, which began with a young boy building websites in Jammu, has now led to pioneering advances in space-based communication infrastructure from Silicon Valley, illustrating both the rapid rise of India’s next generation of tech entrepreneurs and the growing global ambition of its innovation-driven youth.