Skyroot raises $4.5 million led by early Google investor Ram Shriram

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Space startup Skyroot Aerospace, which is building private space launch vehicles in India, on Thursday announced raising $4.5 million in a bridge round to Series-B led by early Google investor Ram Shriram through his venture capital firm Sherpalo Ventures.

The bridge round is co-led by Wami Capital, Ex-WhatsApp CBO Neeraj Arora, and former Google executive Amit Singhal.

This takes the total funds raised by the Hyderabad headquartered aerospace startup to $17 million, which is considered the largest by an Indian space startup to date.

The company, the first Indian private entity to test-fire multiple rocket propulsion systems, had earlier in 2021 raised $11 million in Series-A round led by Greenko founders, while $1.5 million of seed round was funded by Myntra and CureFit founder Mukesh Bansal.

Pointing out that India has long been a leader in rocket launch capability, especially at significantly lower cost, Ram Shriram, who is also the board member of Google, said, “Skyroot takes that technical strength to the next level, with its innovative and cost-effective space launch capability, disrupting the status quo in global launch market."

Chetan Mehta, Chief Executive of Wami Capital, said they have always backed innovative companies and Skyroot represents a classic story of home-grown disruptive innovation. “Their mission to democratize space access will open up new areas of opportunities and will go a long way in contributing to India’s offering of a strong space ecosystem to the world.”

Naga Bharath Daka, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Skyroot, said the latest round of funding helps the company “build critical infrastructure early-on and helps accelerate towards our launch this year.”

Skyroot’s co-founder and chief executive Pawan Kumar Chandana said the support from incredible investors including one of the world’s most influential tech investors Ram Shriram validates the aerospace startup’s vision and execution over the last three years.

Pawan said the company successfully demonstrated three cutting edge propulsion technologies used in their Vikram series of Space launch vehicles over the last 18 months and “this year will be a year of hyper-growth, where we will be testing our final rocket stages for a launch, while continuing to build a strong order book for the first few launches.”