Skyroot raises $27.5 mln, heating up India’s private sector space race

HYDERABAD (Reuters): India’s Skyroot Aerospace said on Monday it has raised $27.5 million in a fresh round of funding led by Singapore’s Temasek, upping the ante in the country’s burgeoning space industry days after rival Agnikul Cosmos raised a similar amount.

The Hyderabad-based company, which launched India’s first private rocket in 2022, is set to launch its second commercial rocket, the Vikram-I, next year. The launch vehicle can take payloads of up to 300 kilograms into low earth orbit.

Skyroot, founded in 2018, said the latest fundraising of about 2.25 billion rupees would help it get to more launches, quicker.

The funding comes as fellow space startup Agnikul Cosmos said it had raised $26.7 million in fresh funding ahead of its first rocket launch as private space firms benefit from the successful landing of an Indian spacecraft on the moon.

Skyroot has so far raised $95 million, while Agnikul has raised $40 million. Skyroot declined to say what the latest money raised valued the company at.

“As we prepare for the launch of our second mission early next year, this new funding will enable us to accelerate our upcoming launches planned over the next two years,” Skyroot’s co-founder Pawan Kumar Chandana said.

Calling India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon mission’s success a boost to the country’s private space industry, Chandana told Reuters in August that the company was aiming for at least two launches from 2024 onwards.

Earlier this month, Skyroot signed a memorandum of understanding with French space firms Prométhée Earth Intelligence, ConnectSAT, and global firm Expleo to launch satellites and software support for their Vikram launches.

Skyroot, also backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, did not disclose the financial terms of those partnerships.