New Delhi, May 7 -- Hyderabad-based spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace has raised about $60 million (around Rs 570 crore) in a fresh funding round, pushing its valuation to $1.1 billion and making it the latest entrant to India's unicorn club.
California-headquartered early-stage investment firm Sherpalo Ventures and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC co-led the round, Skyroot said in a statement Thursday.
Funds managed by BlackRock, alongside existing backers including the founders of Greenko Group and Arkam Ventures, also joined the round. Other investors in the round include Playbook Partners and Shanghvi Family Office. Skyroot said it has nearly doubled its valuation in approximately 30 months.
As part of the investment, Ram Shriram, founder of Sherpalo Ventures and a board member at Google parent Alphabet Inc, will join Skyroot's board.
Founded by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, Skyroot is building a family of launch vehicles aimed at enabling on-demand and affordable access to space for small satellite customers worldwide.
The company has so far raised close to $100 million from investors, including GIC and Temasek. Prior to this, the company had raised around $50 million in its Series B funding round in September 2022 from investors like GIC and LNM India Internet Ventures.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to scale up manufacturing, support a higher launch cadence for its Vikram-series rockets, and accelerate development of its next vehicle, Vikram-2, which will feature a cryogenic stage and target heavier payloads.
The funding comes as Skyroot prepares for the maiden launch of Vikram-1, its first orbital-class rocket. The firm said that the launch is expected in the coming weeks and will mark India's first privately developed orbital mission if successful. The vehicle is designed to offer dedicated launch services for small satellite operators globally.
Skyroot's upcoming mission builds on its earlier milestone in 2022, when it launched Vikram-S, India's first privately built rocket to reach space, the firm said.
"I've believed in the Skyroot team since the early days, and that conviction has only deepened as the team marches forward to the launchpad with Vikram-1, India's first private orbital-class rocket," said Shriram, founder and managing partner, Sherpalo.
"Access to space is one of the key challenges of our time. Skyroot is building the foundational infrastructure for that future with the best cost-to-performance ratio in the orbital-launch industry, and what the team has achieved is remarkable," Shriram added.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.