Latest news with #AgnikulCosmos
Indian Express
12 hours ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Spacetech has arrived, and it's time for take-off: Vishesh Rajaram, co-founder, Speciale Invest
Vishesh Rajaram is the co-founder of Speciale Invest, a venture capital firm investing in deep tech, with a particular emphasis on spacetech. Speciale Invest is known for its early and consistent bets on Indian spacetech startups, such as Agnikul Cosmos, Astrogate Labs, GalaxEye, Kawa Space, and InspeCity. Its portfolio spans satellites, launch vehicles, and space infrastructure, supporting startups across upstream (hardware, launch vehicles, satellites) and downstream (data analytics, communication) applications. Vishesh began his career as a corporate banker with ICICI Bank before moving to Ventureast, an early-stage and growth-stage fund, as a Principal.. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business. Vishesh spoke to on the opportunities for spacetech startups in India, why the timing is right for investing in the sector, the unique problems that spacetech could solve, and ideas that failed to catch fire. Edited excerpts: Vishesh Rajaram: Let me give you a background. The venture capital world has gone through a wave of cloud, SaaS, mobile penetration, e-commerce, and fintech. They did not see the necessity of immersing themselves in the world of science and deep tech. So much was already going on that one did not break his head over deep tech. But we need to remember that India was essentially a manufacturing nation. We made motorcycles and cars, and we exported them. We also had the expertise of exporting precision aerospace components. You must understand that all the big conglomerates that made wealth between 1960 and 2000 were not into IT services, they were not into software. They were all traditional manufacturing companies. We do not recognise it, but we have a talent for manufacturing. The missing element was capital. We started our fund in 2017, and our focus was to invest in IP-rich companies, with differentiated tech and product, and spacetech is one of our focus areas. Others are energy, health, and advanced manufacturing. If you are selling milk or eggs, you can test it in three months, but if you are building a rocket, it will take you three years. So the challenge about science and deep tech investments is that they need a gestation period. The venture ecosystem has historically avoided such businesses. They do software, e-commerce, and fintech. They prefer a two- to three-year gestation period and see it as not risky. Spacetech is challenging because it presents the sort of risk that, traditionally, VCs in the country have not taken. However, the time is now right for deep tech investments. This is partly due to geopolitics and partly because of India's global positioning. It is also because the rest of the world is beginning to buy technology from us. Fifteen years ago, this was not the case. No one said they want to buy technology or put their satellite on our rockets. But that has changed. Today, India's credibility is significantly more than it was 15 to 20 years ago. Vishesh Rajaram: We are a very early-stage investor. When we invest, it is mostly at a business plan stage, and maybe some early prototype is available. One, we look at the team. What has the team done? What insights do they carry? What do they know that other people don't know? That allows them to go further and do different things. We pay a lot of attention to what it is that the team is doing that nobody else is, or what is very hard for other people to do. And therefore, if you are successful, you will end up being very monopolistic. We also care a lot about the velocity of market growth. All markets are large, but if the market is not growing, and if there are no strong pain points, why will someone give a chance to a small startup? Only if the pain is very deep and there is no solution, is there an opportunity for a startup. Then, even if the startup does not have a full product, we say, come and try it out. Let us make something work and run it as an experiment. Vishesh Rajaram: What most of us do not remember is that India was among the four or five space pioneers, which showed that we had a lot of talent, experience, and capability on the spacetech front. The question then was: Will the market grow? Twenty years ago, the spacetech market was dependent on the government, the defence industry, and university research. Commercial applications were not available since the cost of going to space and the cost of building anything in space was very expensive. Over the last 10 years, thanks to private efforts, there has been a consistent decline in the cost of launching a satellite and a significant decline in the cost of manufacturing a satellite. So suddenly, what was costing $50 million now costs $2 million. The economics of space have changed. There is a strong realisation that with the kind of data that is collected on Earth from space, we can make good business decisions around weather, insurance, defence, and agriculture. Therefore, there's an opportunity for this economy to begin and grow. At the time we began investing, this was only the tip of the iceberg. The sector was just beginning to heat up. Normally, in one sector, there's only one market variable that is moving. In this, there were two. The cost of going to space and the cost of making the satellite were going down. We had multiple things working in our favour. Therefore, for us, it was a sitting duck. Vishesh Rajaram: We have made six investments. There is Agnikul Cosmos, a company that uses 3D printing tech to take satellites to space. It takes six months to make a rocket. They said we would do it in two weeks, and they did it. That's our differentiator. Agnikul aims to provide on-demand launches for micro and nanosatellites, democratising access to space through affordable small satellite launch vehicles. There is GalaxEye Space, which is a satellite constellation company. They are developing India's first multi-sensor imaging satellites, combining synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical data to deliver high-resolution, all-weather imagery. The company aims to provide insights for industries like agriculture, urban planning, defence, and environmental monitoring. It would also contribute to disaster management and maritime surveillance, among other sectors. There is Astrogate Labs with a focus on space satellite is launched using a rocket, and once it is in space, it collects information. It still needs to send the information to Earth. But today, space communication happens on radio frequency, which is slow and expensive. Astrogate works on laser communications, thereby increasing the speed of communication and reducing its cost. There is InspeCity, which is essentially building maintenance capabilities for satellites. Their solutions aim to extend satellite lifespans through refueling, repositioning, and de-orbiting, reducing costs for operators and mitigating space debris. Their work supports the emerging in-space economy for sustainable satellite operations and helping global efforts to manage orbital congestion. There is Kawa Space, which focuses on satellite-based downstream data analytics, providing geospatial intelligence for industries such as agriculture, insurance, and urban development. By using satellite imagery and analytics, Kawa Space delivers insights to customers, helping them monitor assets, predict trends, and optimise operations. Their work aligns with the increasing demand for earth observation data. Vishesh Rajaram: Drug discovery is big. We will be able to discover drugs and molecules significantly better in what is called microgravity. Chemicals crystallise better when there is no gravity. On Earth, you cannot have a no-gravity environment. Therefore, having a microgravity environment would help pharmaceutical research. I think space maintenance could be the other one. Why do you have to keep sending satellites? Why can't you make satellites in space? Things like that. There will be substantial advances in existing uses of satellite data in agriculture, weather prediction, etc, but these are improvements per se, not something totally new. Venkatesh Kannaiah: Tell us about some spacetech startups globally that you think are solving some interesting problems. Vishesh Rajaram: Globally, we are seeing a fascinating wave of innovation across diverse areas of spacetech. A few standout startups are Inbound Aerospace (India) and Varda Space Industries (USA). They are building in-orbit manufacturing capabilities, using microgravity to produce materials such as high-grade pharmaceuticals and semiconductors that are difficult to manufacture on Earth. InspeCity (India) and Astroscale (Japan) are building cities in space, tackling maintenance of satellites in orbit, refueling and repairing satellites, and orbital debris removal, a massive problem as satellite constellations scale. Each of these startups has a new dimension of commercial space, moving beyond just launch and communications into data, manufacturing, and sustainability. Vishesh Rajaram: Rather than naming specific companies, I will highlight a few themes where spacetech ventures have historically struggled, often due to timing, regulation, or capital intensity. Space-based internet in the pre-Starlink era is one idea tried out by many startups in the early 2000s, which failed due to the lack of reusable launch vehicles, expensive satellite hardware, and no real commercial use case at the time. The market was not ready for this idea. There was the idea of asteroid mining, which was visionary but premature in both technology readiness and capital requirement. The time horizon was too long for most commercial investors. Vishesh Rajaram: India's spacetech ecosystem is at a turning point. What is working is that ISRO is opening up. The creation of IN-SPACe has been a game changer. It provides a clear regulatory path for private players to work with the ISRO infrastructure and data. More than 150 spacetech startups have emerged in India in the last five years, covering everything from launch to sensors to analytics. Companies like GalaxEye, Agnikul, Kawa Space, and Astrogate are now on the global map. Institutions like IIT Madras, IISc, and BITS Pilani have become innovation hotbeds, not just in research, but in spinning out real ventures. India has the building blocks for a thriving space economy. What we need now is demand aggregation, especially from strategic and commercial buyers, and a maturing capital stack.
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
VC firm Speciale Invest plans launch of new fund for deep-tech investments
Deep-tech investment firm Speciale Invest, which backs seed-stage and early-stage companies, is planning to launch its third fund as the current fund nears completion. The firm did not disclose the size of the upcoming fund but stated that it would be slightly larger than its previous fund, which stood at ₹300 crore. The firm plans to make five to six investments from the upcoming fund in the first year, with an average ticket size ranging between $0.75 million and $1 million, said Arjun Rao, general partner at the firm. 'We are working on it (Fund III)... Fund II will be fully deployed in the coming weeks or months, and then we should be ready to make new investments, and that will be a classic Fund III. The overall size will be a little larger than the last fund, but not significantly larger,' Rao said. Speciale Invest has backed companies including space-tech firm Agnikul Cosmos, flying taxi startup The ePlane Company, and semiconductor company Morphing Machines, among others. Over the past eight years, the firm has operated three funds — Fund I, Fund II, and an additional growth fund. Rao said the majority of limited partners are domestic, and capital has been raised from family offices, high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), ultra-HNIs, corporates, and some members of the Indian diaspora abroad. Fund I, launched in 2017, had a corpus of ₹60 crore, with investments in 18 companies. The average investment size was around $0.5 million. Apart from Agnikul Cosmos and The ePlane Company, other portfolio firms from this fund include robotics startup CynLr and space-tech firm GalaxEye. Fund II, launched in 2021, scaled up fivefold to ₹300 crore. As the fund nears full deployment, the firm expects to invest in one or two more companies. So far, it has backed 17 companies. Investment sizes ranged from $0.5 million to $1 million. Notable investments from this fund include climate-tech startup Newtrace, cybersecurity firm QNu Labs, and drug discovery startup Peptris. In 2023, Speciale Invest also raised a ₹185 crore growth fund to participate in follow-on rounds of its existing portfolio companies. 'We raised a growth fund in 2023 which amounted to ₹185 crore. We invested in around 5–6 companies from Fund I and Fund II. We can invest in a total of 8–10 companies from this fund,' Rao said. On exit performance, Rao said, 'They have all been healthy, positive multiple outcomes, some in the range of 2x to 8x multiples on mergers and acquisitions. These early-to-young companies were acquired by larger, strategic players who found value in the product, technology, and team.' He noted that Wingman was acquired by Clari, a global player in the sales intelligence space, and augmented reality startup Scapic was acquired by Walmart-owned Flipkart. In total, there have been seven exits. While the firm identifies as sector-agnostic, it sees high-growth opportunities in space technology, climate and sustainability, manufacturing, defence, industrial automation and robotics, artificial intelligence in enterprise infrastructure, biotech, and life sciences.
India Today
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- India Today
Agnikul Cosmos successfully test fires engine to power Agnibaan rocket
Agnikul Cosmos, the Chennai-based private space startup, has achieved a significant milestone by successfully test-firing India's first electric motor-driven semi-cryogenic rocket engine, which will power its upcoming Agnibaan launch breakthrough, announced on Friday, marks a major leap for India's rapidly evolving private space sector and places Agnikul at the forefront of propulsion technology engine's most notable feature is its electric motor-driven throttling system, which enables precise control over thrust by varying the speed of the electric This capability allows for higher accuracy and rapid response—critical for managing complex flight trajectories and mission requirements. During the test, the engine was throttled across a wide range of thrust levels, demonstrating the flexibility and reliability of the technology. Unlike conventional rocket engines that rely on gas generators or turbopumps, Agnikul's semi-cryogenic engine uses an electric motor to power the pumps that circulate propellants—a combination of liquid oxygen (cryogenic oxidizer) and refined kerosene (non-cryogenic fuel).This approach is not only more efficient but also allows for easier integration of advanced control signature single-piece engine design remains central to this new system. Many of the engine's pump subsystems were 3D-printed and assembled at the company's AS9100D-certified Rocket Factory-1, located at the IIT Madras Research Park in motor drives and associated control software were also designed and developed entirely successful test is a key step toward firing a cluster of these engines together, a crucial requirement for powering the Agnibaan which can be configured to carry payloads ranging from 30 kg to 300 kg, is designed to serve the growing demand for affordable and customisable satellite launches.
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Agnikul ignites India's first electric motor-driven semi-cryogenic rocket engine
Spacetech startup Agnikul Cosmos successfully fired India's first electric motor-driven semi-cryogenic engine , cofounder and CEO Srinath Ravichandran announced on Friday. Ravichandran shared a video of the engine being throttled to different levels of thrust by varying the speed of the electric motor. Electric motor-driven throttling allows for higher accuracy and rapid response, which is important for handling complex trajectories, Ravichandran wrote in a social media post. Also, regarding flight readiness, this test is a key milestone towards firing a cluster of engines together. The new electric motor-driven system continues to use Agnikul's single-piece 3D-printed engine , Ravichandran wrote. Along with the patented engine, many subsystems of the pump were also 3D-printed and assembled at the company's Rocket Factory-1 facility, the CEO said, adding that the motor drives and associated control software were also fully designed and developed in-house. Live Events Agnikul Cosmos won the Top Innovator award at the Economic Times Startup Awards in 2020. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories In May last year, Agnikul successfully carried out a sub-orbital test flight of its home-built 3D-printed semi-cryogenic rocket, Agnibaan, after several hiccups. The IIT-Madras-incubated company also became India's second private entity after Skyroot Aerospace to launch from a private launch pad. The rocket used the world's first 3-D printed single-piece engine, dubbed Agnilet. The indigenous engine is a semi-cryogenic unit using sub-cooled liquid oxygen and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Talking to ET in October last year, Ravichandran had said that Agnikul will launch its commercial operations by mid-2025. The space startup was in active discussions with 30 to 40 potential clients, exploring specific demands and use cases for its Agnibaan rocket , cofounder Srinath Ravichandran told ET. Given the evolving market for small satellite launch vehicles, the company plans to scale its operations to support around 25 launches per year using its mobile launchpad Dhanush at Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) facilities.
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Forbes Asia 100 To Watch 2025: Nominations Are Now Open
In August 2025, Forbes Asia will publish the fifth annual edition of the 100 to Watch list, which recognizes small companies and startups on the rise. Since 2021, the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch List has featured some of the fastest-growing and most innovative companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Last year's listees included Agnikul Cosmos, an Indian spacetech startup developing launch rockets that send payloads into space, and Botsync, a Singapore-based company building mobile robots for use in factories. Nominations for the fifth Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list are being accepted now. We are seeking growing companies making a positive impact in their local markets or in the region and with a successful record of serving customers or attracting investors. To qualify for the list, companies must meet the following criteria: 1. be founded before August 2024 2. be headquartered in Asia-Pacific 3. have annual revenue not exceeding $50 million 4. have no more than $100 million in total funding 5. be privately owned (not listed) 6. be a for-profit enterprise If you think your company is worth watching - or know of one that is - tell us your story. All you have to do is complete the nomination form by July 25, 2025, and our team will handle the rest. Forbes Asia 100 to Watch is sponsored by FedEx. Click here to submit your nomination.
