India’s unicorn machine has been lying largely dormant since the heady post-Covid era, but an entirely new industry might help spring it back to life.
Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has raised $60 million in fresh funding, vaulting its valuation to $1.1 billion and making it India’s first space-tech unicorn — a private company valued at $1 billion or more. The round was co-led by Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, with participation from BlackRock, the founders of Greenko Group, Arkam Ventures, Playbook Partners, and Shanghvi Family Office. With this, Skyroot’s total funding crosses $160 million (roughly Rs 1,500 crore).
From ISRO Halls To The Launchpad
Skyroot was born out of a decision to bet on a policy document. In 2017, when India’s draft Space Activities Bill signalled that private companies could build and launch rockets, two ISRO scientists saw an opening. “Looking at the draft bill, we quit ISRO to start our own venture,” COO Naga Bharath Daka had said at the time.
Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and CEO, had spent six years at ISRO as a scientist, doing a NASA programme during his studies before joining. Naga Bharath Daka worked as an avionics engineer at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. The two crossed paths at ISRO, developed a shared vision, and founded Skyroot in July 2018 — starting out of a small setup in Kondapur, Hyderabad, with a team of ten.
Their thesis was straightforward but ambitious: make access to space as routine and affordable as commercial aviation.
Building The Rocket, One Engine At A Time
Skyroot’s technical journey has been methodical. In August 2020, the company became the first Indian private firm to test an upper-stage liquid rocket engine — Raman-I, a 3D-printed hypergolic-fuel engine with 50% less mass than conventional equivalents. Later that December, it tested Kalam-5, the first solid-fuelled rocket engine ever fired by an Indian private company — named after A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, India’s Missile Man.
The real breakthrough came on November 18, 2022. In a mission named Prarambh (“The Beginning”), Skyroot launched Vikram-S — India’s first privately developed rocket — from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The suborbital rocket hit a peak altitude of 88.8 km, crossed Mach 5, and carried three customer payloads, including one from Armenia and two from Indian entities. It was a landmark: no Indian private company had ever put a rocket into space before.
The Big One: Vikram-1 And Orbital Ambitions
Vikram-S was the proof of concept. Vikram-1 is the real deal. Designed to carry up to 480 kg into low Earth orbit, the three-stage vehicle is built with carbon composite structures and 3D-printed engines. Its hardware has been transported to Sriharikota for final integration, with the launch expected within weeks. If successful, it will be India’s first privately launched orbital rocket — a milestone for the country’s commercial space ecosystem.
The company is also developing Vikram-2, which will use a cryogenic upper stage capable of carrying heavier payloads, and has a longer-term goal of launching one rocket per month from its newly inaugurated Infinity Campus — a 200,000-square-foot facility in Hyderabad opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2025.
The Investors Betting On It
The investor line-up for this round is striking. Ram Shriram — founding board member of Alphabet and the first backer of Google — is not only deepening his commitment to Skyroot but joining its board. Shriram has been a Skyroot investor since 2022, when Sherpalo led a $4.5 million bridge round. GIC and BlackRock, both returning backers, signal continued confidence from global institutional capital. The round values Skyroot more than double its 2023 valuation of around $519 million.
The new capital will fund a high-cadence launch schedule for Vikram-1, scale up manufacturing, and accelerate development of Vikram-2.
Why It Matters
India’s space sector was opened to private players through policy reforms between 2020 and 2023, and Skyroot has been its most visible product. The company’s unicorn status puts a number — and a psychological marker — on what was previously a nascent, government-dominated industry. It also arrives at a moment when India’s broader startup ecosystem is searching for its next wave of breakout companies, having seen unicorn creation slow sharply after the 2021 boom.
Space-tech may be a small slice of that pie, but Skyroot’s trajectory suggests it could punch well above its weight.