Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace raises $51 million in Series-B funding

[Midnightsun]

The funding will help the startup to expand its engineering team and achieve commercial satellite launch scale within a year, the company said. 

Skyroot Aerospace founders Pawan Kumar Chandana (right) and Naga Bharath Daka (left)

Hyderabad-based space tech startup Skyroot Aerospace has raised US $51 million (Rs 403 crore) in a Series-B financing round. This is the largest funding round ever in the Indian spacetech sector, a release by the company claimed.

In contrast, Accenture recently announced that it has invested $25 million in Pixxel in a series A funding round. Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos has, as of now, raised $11 million in Series A funding and is reportedly raising further funds in a new round; Hyderabad-based Dhruva Aerospace, in October 2021, raised Rs 22 crore or around $2.7 million.

Singapore-headquartered GIC led the funding round. Mayank Rawat, Managing Director of GIC India Direct Investment Group will be joining Skyroot’s Board, the release said.

Rothschild & Co India were the financial advisors for this funding round. The added fund will help expand Skyroot’s engineering team which currently has close to 200 employees, a release by the company said.

Currently, Skyroot has been working on developing the country’s first privately developed space launch vehicles. Their Vikram series rockets are built with an all-carbon-fibre structure and can launch up to 800 kg of payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

“This round puts us on a trajectory of hyper-growth by funding all of our initial developmental launches, and enables building infras