The startup had recently become the first to test fire world’s first 3d printed rocket engine. It had raised Rs 23.4 crore in a pre-Series A funding led by pi Ventures in 2022
Agnikul Cosmos Pvt Ltd, a space-tech startup incubated in IIT-Madras, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by venture capital firm Mayfield India. Vikram Godse, managing partner, Mayfield India, will be joining the board of the company.
“In these difficult times for humanity as a whole, we are thankful to be able to find excitement, as our investors continue to reaffirm their confidence in our strategy of democratizing small satellite launches. We are thankful to have ISRO’s guidance and happy that the Government is enabling private space tech ventures,” said Srinath Ravichandran, co-founder and CEO, Agnikul.
He added, “With this support from the Government and investors, we look forward to an exciting next step for our company and in the process, simplifying access to space.”
Agnikul is currently working on building Agnibaan. Once complete, Agnibaan will ne known as India’s first private small satellite launch vehicle. It is a rocket that enables plug-and-play configuration and is capable of carrying up to 100 kg of payload to low earth orbits. The startup notes that rocket comes with the ability of full customization as per needs told by its customers. Agnikul expects to complete its first mission in 2022.
The startup had recently become the first to testfire world’s first 3d printed rocket engine. It had raised Rs 23.4 crore in a pre-Series A funding led by pi Ventures in 2022.
“In the next two years, we want to perfect getting to orbit. This is a large effort by itself and we are keeping our focus to just this for now. We are proud to be building from India and we will continue to strategize on efficient realization techniques such as 3d printing to build world class space technology in India,” said Moin SPM, co-founder and COO, Agnikul.
Agnikul’s existing investors pi Ventures, Speciale Invest and Artha Venture Fund also invested in this round. BEENEXT, Globevestor and LionRock Capital also invested in the same rouund. Angel investors inlcuding Anand Mahindra, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Nithin Kamath, Abhishek Singhania, Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan and some others also participated in the round.
“Agnikul is democratising access to space for the small satellite market, which is largely underserved globally. For these customers, this is a game changer as they now have zero wait time and can control their own mission, all at an affordable cost. The team’s customer centric approach combined with their ability to constantly innovate will help them stay ahead of competition and build a global success story,” said Mayfield’s Godse.
