BHUBANESWAR: SpaceFields, a space tech startup by three alumni of VSSUT-Burla and supported by Startup Odisha, has raised Rs 6.5 crore in a seed funding round led by HVB 88 Angels (US-based fund) and O2 Angels Network (Delhi-based deep tech syndicate).
Co-founded in 2021 by Apurwa Masook, Sudarshan Samal and Rounak Agrawal, the firm custom designs and manufactures turnkey solid rocket propulsion systems for aerospace, defence and space applications.
Incubated at FSID Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and supported by the Aerospace Engineering department, SpaceFields unveiled and tested India’s first Aerospike rocket engine last year. SpaceFields has also filed six patents on various novel technologies developed in-house.
SpaceFields has also received funding from Startup India Seed Fund, and additional grant support from Boeing India, the governments of Odisha and Karnataka. The founders said the fresh capital will be used towards the development and testing of critical hardware and various subsystems, R&D in energetic materials and expanding the company’s team.
“Amidst the rise of global conflicts, geopolitical tensions, increasing military-industrial backlog and thrust on indigenisation, there is huge room for agile contenders to emerge and solve critical problems. Our pilots and collaborations span a diverse cohort of customers such as DRDO, ISRO, Tri-services, DPSUs like HAL, Tactical drone companies, and several Aerospace OEMs who require custom-developed solid-fuel powered systems,” said Apurwa Masook, founder and CEO, SpaceFields.
Siddharth Jain, co-founder at HVB 88 Angels said “We backed the team at SpaceFields as we saw their drive to rise to a challenge in the manufacturing of solid fuel propulsion systems that will be applicable to various platforms such as rockets and drones alike in the years ahead.”