Agnikul Cosmos secures $26.7 million for increased capacity and bi-monthly commercial launches

(L) Agnikul Cosmos co-founders Moin SPM and (R) Srinath Ravichandran

Chennai-based space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos on October 17 announced that it has raised $26.7 million in a Series B round, highlighting the growing value of India's space tech ecosystem in a so-called funding winter.

The IIT Madras incubated startup which manufactures launch vehicles, secured the funding from a clutch of investors including Celesta Capital, Rocketship.vc, Artha Venture Fund and Artha Select Fund, along with participation from existing investors such as pi Ventures, Speciale Invest and others. This brings their total capital raised to $40 million.

The startup which is currently gearing up for the maiden launch of their suborbital rocket Agnibaan from Sriharikota, plans to utilise the capital towards commercialisation, as well as invest in facilities such as launchpads and so on.

Agnibaan is set to be a technology demonstrator and will help in validating the startup's technologies for their commercial launches.

Building capacity for future launches

Speaking to Moneycontrol, CEO and co-founder of Agnikul, Srinath Ravichandran said, "We have a good handle on the technology required to build the vehicle. So we felt that besides focusing on building the first set of vehicles, we also had to start thinking a little more about what happens after the first few launches. How are we going to set up to be a company that does addressing multiple launches a year?"

"So this capital infusion will be about investing a little more in infrastructure and quality in operations, production; I think hiring the right kind of people for that and starting to plan for that," he added.

As the startup goes forward and after it successfully launches Agnibaan and takes up a few commercial launches, Ravichandran aims to have the capacity to launch a rocket once in two weeks. "I think what we'll be able to present to our customers is a largely-risk-mitigated solution," he added.

In terms of talent infusion, Ravichandran said that Agnikul as of now has 225 employees. "I think we will be getting around to 325 over the next year," he added.

Monsoon factor for their maiden launch

Agnikul's maiden launch is going to be of their Agnibaan Suborbital Technological Demonstrator, which as the name suggests would help in validating the startup's technologies. It is a single-stage launch vehicle driven by Agnikul’s patented Agnilet – an entirely 3D-printed, single-piece with a 6 kN semi-cryogenic engine.

A suborbital rocket is a type of rocket that is designed to reach altitudes just above the Earth's atmosphere but does not achieve the velocity required to enter orbit around the planet.

"Agnibaan is in Sriharikota right now. It is going through a last bit of dry integration checks and rehearsals and so on. I don't know how the monsoon itself will play out. There's a little bit of testing also to be done. But once these things are figured out, probably before the end of this year, we should be able to target it," he added.

The rocket is being integrated with the startup's private launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC), Sriharikota. Agnibaan will lift off vertically and follow a predetermined trajectory while performing a precisely orchestrated set of maneuvers during flight, the company said in a release.

Established in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM, and SR Chakravarthy, of IIT Madras, the startup aims to democratise space exploration by making it both accessible and cost-effective.