If you follow India’s private space race at all, Skyroot Aerospace is a name you already know. Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, two engineers who left ISRO to start something of their own, launched the company out of Hyderabad in 2018. Their bet: build a family of rockets — they call it Vikram — aimed at commercial launches for small satellites.
That bet paid off in a big way on July 18, 2026. Vikram-I lifted off from Sriharikota and made it to orbit, and with that, Skyroot became the first company to pull off a privately built Indian orbital rocket launch from Indian soil. A startup story that had been mostly promise up to that point suddenly became something the whole industry was talking about.
A few numbers worth knowing:
- Chandana and Daka, both ex-ISRO, got the company off the ground in 2018
- By May 2026, Skyroot had become India’s first space-tech unicorn, on the back of a $60 million round that valued it at $1.1 billion
- Two months later, Vikram-I completed its orbital run, reaching 450 km and carrying multiple payloads along the way
- Funding since then has climbed to around $160 million total
- Vikram-II is already in the works, designed to haul up to 900 kg into low Earth orbit, with a 2027 launch on the roadmap
What Is Skyroot Aerospace?
Skyroot Aerospace is an Indian space-tech company building rockets and launch services for satellites, with a simple goal at the core of it: make getting to space more flexible, reliable, and actually affordable.
Based out of Hyderabad, the company’s built around its Vikram series of launch vehicles, aimed squarely at the growing small-satellite launch market.
The team’s grown quite a bit too — Skyroot says it now has more than 1,000 experts on board, blending deep aerospace know-how with the kind of fast-moving engineering and manufacturing you’d expect from a startup.
On the technology side, here’s what they’re working with:
- Solid-fuel propulsion
- Liquid-fuel propulsion
- Cryogenic propulsion
- Carbon-composite structures
- 3D-printed rocket-engine components
- Dedicated and rideshare launch capabilities
So really, this isn’t about building just one rocket. Skyroot’s aiming for something bigger — a launch-vehicle platform that can actually scale.
Who Founded Skyroot Aerospace?
Skyroot Aerospace founder Pawan Kumar Chandana co-founded the company in 2018 alongside Naga Bharath Daka, both former ISRO engineers and IIT alumni. Their engineering background at India’s space agency gave them a rare technical head start most first-time space founders don’t have.
They weren’t alone from the start, either — a group of former scientists from India’s civilian space and defence establishments joined them early on, giving Skyroot deep institutional knowledge before it had built a single rocket.
How Did Skyroot Aerospace Begin Its Success Story?
Skyroot’s story starts in 2018 with a fairly simple idea, even if it was an ambitious one: make launching satellites into space something more companies could actually do.
From there, the team got to work on the Vikram family of launch vehicles, testing different propulsion technologies step by step as they went.
One of the earliest big wins came in November 2022, when Vikram-S became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach space. That wasn’t just a headline moment, either — the suborbital mission gave Skyroot real flight data and experience, which mattered a lot before they tried something as hard as an actual orbital launch.
Here’s roughly how it all played out:
- 2018 → Company founded
- 2021 → Major Series A funding
- 2022 → Vikram-S reaches space
- 2022 → $51 million Series B
- 2023 → $27.5 million Temasek-led round
- 2026 → $60 million funding and $1.1 billion valuation
- July 2026 → Vikram-I successfully reaches orbit
Looking at that timeline, it’s pretty clear the technical milestones and the fundraising kept feeding off each other along the way.
How Much Is Skyroot Aerospace Funding?
Skyroot Aerospace funding has grown substantially as the company moved from prototype development toward orbital launch operations.
The company raised several rounds from Indian and international investors. In May 2026, Skyroot raised $60 million, taking its valuation to approximately $1.1 billion and making it India’s first space-tech unicorn. The round is also part of a broader shift toward larger capital commitments for India’s deep-tech companies. FounderPin’s India startup funding trends for 2026 looks at why investors are increasingly focusing on AI, deep tech, hardware and other capital-intensive sectors.
The funding history includes several important rounds:
| Year | Round | Amount | Key Investor(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Series A | $11M | Greenko founders and others |
| 2022 | Bridge | $4.5M | Sherpalo Ventures |
| 2022 | Series B | ~$51M | GIC |
| 2023 | Pre-Series C | ~$27.5M | Temasek |
| 2026 | Latest round | $60M | GIC, Sherpalo Ventures, BlackRock and others |
Funding databases report somewhat different totals because some databases include debt, extensions and smaller transactions differently. Reuters reported that Skyroot’s May 2026 round brought its total capital raised to about $160 million.
For a funding article, therefore, approximately $160 million is the safer figure to use for the company’s reported capital raised following the 2026 round.
Who Are the Major Skyroot Aerospace Investors?
Skyroot Aerospace investors include major global institutions as well as prominent Indian entrepreneurs and early-stage backers.
Some of the notable names associated with the company include:
- GIC
- Sherpalo Ventures
- Temasek
- BlackRock
- Solar Industries India
- Mukesh Bansal
- Arkam Ventures
- Playbook Partners
- WorldQuant Ventures
- Graph Ventures
GIC led Skyroot’s approximately $51 million Series B in 2022, while Temasek led the $27.5 million funding round announced in 2022.
In May 2026, GIC and Sherpalo Ventures co-led the company’s new investment, with BlackRock also participating through structured financing.
This investor mix matters.
Space hardware requires enormous amounts of capital and long development timelines. Having investors willing to finance deep-tech development gives Skyroot more room to build infrastructure rather than chase short-term revenue.
For founders trying to understand where that capital comes from, our guide to early-stage VC funds in India covers investors actively backing Indian startups at the seed and early-growth stages.
What Is Vikram-1, and Why Does It Matter?
ISRO confirmed that Vikram-I’s successful orbital launch on July 18, 2026 made Skyroot the first private Indian company to successfully undertake an orbital launch from Indian soil, and only the third private company globally — after US and Chinese counterparts — to achieve private orbital launch capability. That’s the technical high point of the Skyroot Aerospace success story so far.
Mission Aagaman details:
- Launched from Pad 1 at Sriharikota, following a 35-minute hold
- Reached a 450-kilometre orbit roughly 15 minutes after liftoff
- Carried Skyroot’s SCOPE technology demonstrator plus three customer payloads
- Vikram-1 can carry approximately 290 kg to a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit
ISRO’s institutional support was central to this achievement — providing motor casting and test facilities, liquid-engine testing, trajectory analysis, safety support, vehicle integration, and the launchpad itself, while IN-SPACe handled regulatory authorisation.
What Technology Does Skyroot Aerospace Use?
Skyroot’s approach blends traditional rocket engineering with more advanced manufacturing methods, like 3D printing and carbon-composite structures.
That combination of engineering, manufacturing and long development cycles is typical of deep-tech startups, which often face very different funding challenges from conventional software companies. FounderPin’s guide to government funding for DeepTech startups in India explores some of those funding routes.
Take Vikram-I, for example — it runs on solid-fuel stages, plus a liquid-fuel system for orbital adjustments, powered by a 3D-printed engine.
Here’s what makes up the broader technology stack:
- 3D-printed rocket engines
- Carbon-composite structures
- Solid propulsion
- Liquid propulsion
- Cryogenic engine development
- Custom orbital deployment
Looking ahead, Skyroot says Vikram-II will step things up with an advanced cryogenic engine, targeting up to 900 kg to low Earth orbit. The company’s currently aiming for a 2027 launch.
What’s Next for Skyroot Aerospace?
Skyroot’s got another test flight planned for later in 2026, with commercial operations on track for 2027. Alongside that, work continues on Vikram-2 — a heavier, one-tonne-class vehicle built around an advanced cryogenic stage. The new Series C funding is going specifically toward ramping up Vikram-1’s launch cadence, scaling up manufacturing, and pushing Vikram-2’s development forward faster.
Backing all of this is Skyroot’s Infinity Campus — a roughly 2 lakh square foot facility that Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated back in November 2025. It’s built with one goal in mind: the capacity to produce an orbital rocket every single month.
Why Is Skyroot Important for India’s Space Industry?
Skyroot’s rise says a lot about what India’s 2020 space-sector reforms actually opened up — real room for private companies to build launch vehicles, satellites, and space applications on their own.
For most of its history, India leaned heavily on ISRO and other government bodies to handle space activities. The 2020 reforms changed that, opening the door to much greater private participation, and ISRO itself has noted that this shift helped speed up growth across India’s space startup scene.
Skyroot is probably the clearest proof of what that opening can produce. Going from a 2018 startup to a $1.1 billion space-tech company with a successful orbital launch under its belt by 2026 — that’s a big deal, and not just for investors. It matters for India’s broader deep-tech ecosystem too.
What Can Founders Learn From Skyroot Aerospace’s Growth?
There are a few genuinely useful lessons hiding in Skyroot’s story — and they apply well beyond aerospace, honestly:
- Proving your tech works, step by step, builds investor confidence faster than any pitch deck ever could. Skyroot’s valuation didn’t double until after Vikram-S actually demonstrated real launch capability — not before
- Timing with regulation matters just as much as being technically ready. Skyroot happened to launch in 2018, right as India was starting to open up private space access, with IN-SPACe formally making that possible in 2020
- Deep domain expertise on the founding team shortens the trust gap significantly. Chandana and Daka came in with ex-ISRO engineering backgrounds, which gave them a credibility head start that most first-time deep-tech founders spend years trying to earn
Final Verdict: Is Skyroot Aerospace a Major Indian Space Success Story?
Yes, without question. Skyroot Aerospace has gone from an ambitious rocket startup to India’s first successful private orbital launch company — and its first space-tech unicorn, too.
What got them here really comes down to three things coming together: deep technical expertise, serious private investment, and a policy environment that actually worked in their favor.
But here’s the thing — the real test is only just starting.
Launching Vikram-I once was historic, no doubt about it. Turning that into a reliable, repeatable commercial launch business is a different challenge entirely, and it’s the one that’ll decide whether Skyroot can actually compete on a global stage.
Either way, for India, the significance is already locked in: private Indian companies can now design, build, fund, and launch orbital rockets from Indian soil. That part’s not up for debate anymore.
Building a deep-tech or hard-tech startup and thinking through your funding and growth strategy? Contact FounderPin today for a consultation, and let’s map out the right path for your startup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the founder of Skyroot Aerospace?
Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka founded Skyroot Aerospace in 2018. Both are former ISRO engineers.
How much funding has Skyroot Aerospace raised?
Following its $60 million 2026 funding round, Reuters reported Skyroot’s total capital raised at approximately $160 million.
Who are Skyroot Aerospace’s investors?
Major investors include GIC, Sherpalo Ventures, Temasek, BlackRock, Solar Industries India, Arkam Ventures and Playbook Partners, among others.
What is Skyroot Aerospace’s biggest achievement?
Vikram-I successfully reached orbit on July 18, 2026, making Skyroot the first private Indian company to successfully conduct an orbital launch from Indian soil.
What is Skyroot’s next rocket?
Skyroot is developing Vikram-II, a larger launch vehicle designed to carry up to 900 kg to low Earth orbit. The company lists 2027 as its target launch year.
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