BENGALURU: Agnikul Cosmos has announced the closure of its Series-B fundraise of $26.7 million. With this, the spacetech startup has raised a total capital of $40 million. The round saw participation from venture capital investors such as Celesta Capital, Rocketship.vc, Artha Venture Fund and Artha Select Fund, Mayfield India, along with participation from existing investors pi Ventures, Speciale Invest, Mayfield India and others.
Agnikul plans to utilize the capital to scale its existing technology towards commercialisation, as well as invest in key facilities such as mobile launchpads and other test rigs necessary for addressing launch-on-demand customer needs, the startup said.
In August 2023, Agnikul commenced the integration process of its launch vehicle, Agnibaan SOrTeD (SubOrbital Technological Demonstrator), with its private launchpad located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota.
Agnikul has previously launched Agnilet, the first single-piece 3D printed engine fully conceived and manufactured in India, successfully test-firing it in early 2021.
Srinath Ravichandran, co-founder and CEO of Agnikul, said, “With this capital, we will continue to drive our technology forward, building facilities and testing systems that we need to deliver a reliable product for our customers."
Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner, Rocketship.vc, said, “As India’s answer to SpaceX, Agnikul is poised to revolutionise the space industry not just domestically but globally."
The startup was founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM and Prof. SR Chakravarthy from IIT Madras. It became the first Indian firm to sign an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in December 2020.