Skyroot Aerospace raises $60M, becomes India's first spacetech unicorn
What's the deal? Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has raised $60M in a round co-led by Sherpalo VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and GIC, reaching a pre-money valuation of $1.1bn — making it India's first spacetech unicorn. Existing backers Greenko GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Arkam VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → joined the round alongside funds managed by BlackRock, Playbook PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Shanghvi Family Office (MABS)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Founded in 2018 by Pawan Kumar ChandanaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Naga Bharath DakaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the company builds rockets designed to give small satellite operators on-demand access to space.
Why now? The capital will fund commercial launch operations for Vikram-1, Skyroot's orbital rocket and the first of its kind from a private Indian company. The vehicle can carry payloads of up to 350kg to low earth orbit and is built for rapid manufacturing and high launch cadence.
Skyroot already has a milestone to its name: in 2022, its Vikram-S became the first privately built Indian rocket to reach space. Vikram-1 is the next step — from suborbital to orbital.
What could go wrong? Rocket launches are unforgiving — a single failure can delay programmes by years and reshape investor sentiment overnight. Skyroot is also entering an increasingly crowded small-launch market, competing with established players such as Rocket Lab and a growing field of international rivals.
The company's valuation has been set ahead of its first orbital launch, meaning the $1.1bn figure is built almost entirely on potential. Any technical setback with Vikram-1 would test that thesis hard.
The signal: Skyroot's unicorn status is a landmark for India's private space sector, which only opened to commercial players in 2020. The presence of BlackRock and GIC — large, conservative institutional investors — alongside a board seat for Ram Shriram, one of Google's earliest backers, signals that global capital is beginning to take India's space ambitions seriously.
The broader trend is clear: the small-satellite launch market is growing fast, and investors are betting that the next generation of launch providers won't all be American.
Sources:
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The Economic Times
AInvest
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