Skyroot Aerospace plans to raise $40 million, double workforce to 180 next year

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Space technology startup Skyroot Aerospace is gearing up to raise USD 40 million (around Rs 300 crore) next year to support its growth and satellite launch solutions in 2022.

Founded in 2018 by former ISRO rocket scientists, the company is planning to double its workforce by next year and has started hiring people for middle to senior-level positions.

"We are providing the lowest cost solution per kilogram for small launches. We are seeing a good amount of interest and hence building a solution to align with satellite launches planned in 2022. Our target is to raise USD 40 million next year to support our growth and launches,” Skyroot CEO and co-founder Pawan Kumar Chandana told PTI.

The company had raised USD 11 million in July led by Greenko Group founders Anil Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli.

Publicly listed Solar Group, former-WhatsApp senior executive and Paytm board member Neeraj Arora, Myntra and Curefit founder Mukesh Bansal, Sutton Capital etc also participated in the round.

The company has started hiring for senior and mid-level positions including director for people and culture, project management lead, aerospace systems development lead, avionics integration and test engineers etc to expand its team of 90 people.

Chandana said there is a tremendous opportunity for people to work on cutting edge technologies at Skyroot and be part of a team to create history by building India’s first privately built space launch vehicles.

"Our team has grown 2 times in strength in 2021 and now we are aiming to double our strength further by 2022. Post government opening up the space sector to private players, the Indian Space sector is set to grow exponentially and offer great career opportunities for several engineering streams,” Skyroot Aerospace COO and co-founder Naga Bharath Daka said.