Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos raises $17 million at $500 million valuation

Agnikul said the capital will be used to expand manufacturing of rocket and aerospace components, increase launch frequency and advance its stage-recovery programme.

The company is also building a 350-acre integrated space campus in Tamil Nadu, with design, manufacturing and testing facilities under one roof.

"Given our previous successful controlled ascent launch … we have now been able to scale our strategy to include lower stage recovery and upper stage extension — features that will make the unit economics of launch services much better," said Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos.

"This fund raise allows us to work on such missions while also focusing on scaling launch frequency and building for the world, from India."

"With growing demand and more than a dozen customers eager to launch with us, scaling our operational depth was the natural next step," said co-founder and COO Moin SPM.

Investors said the funding signals a strong inflection point for India’s private space sector.

"They are at the right place at the right time, poised to meet the enormous unmet demand for low earth orbit satellites both globally and domestically," said Arun Kumar, managing partner at Celesta Capital.

"Agnikul’s trajectory is a clear signal that India’s private space industry has arrived and the world is now watching closely," said Anirudh A. Damani, managing partner at Artha Select Fund, which contributed its largest cheque yet for the company.

Agnikul last year conducted it's first private launch from its own launchpad using a single-piece 3D-printed rocket engine. The company serves customers in India, the Middle East, and Australia.