Agnikul, a startup that has developed the technology to make small satellite launch vehicles through 3D printing, has raised its Series A funding of ₹23.40 crore. Leading the investment in this round is pi Ventures, with participation from Hari Kumar (LionRock Capital), Artha Ventures, LetsVenture, Globevestor, CIIE and existing investor Speciale Invest.
Agnikul has based its operation in Chennai within the National Centre for Combustion Research in IIT Chennai. The company has successfully developed satellite launch vehicles that can carry a payload of up to 100kgs. This would help several smaller players to enter the space technology business launching their small satellites for various purposes. The production of the satellite vehicle is through 3D printing which not only makes this production process cheaper, but reduces the lead time by a great bit. It will become practically an on-demand business which again augurs well for this hitherto unexplored sector. These are single piece units and Agnikul is considered the only company in the world to make a rocket engine of this type in the world!
Agnikul has said the funds now raised will be deployed for ground testing, fabrication and team expansion.
Agnikul is part of a $350 billion space technology market worldwide which aims to bring more players into the ‘space’ (pun intended) and launch as many as 2,500 satellites by 2022 as against just 500 a year now. The more the merrier.
The real mission that Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO and his venture Agnikul have set for themselves is to make space accessible and affordable. The company is happy to receive this round of investment that will boost its efforts in reaching its objectives.
For pi Ventures, the investment in Agnikul is its first outside of digital technology where it has made most of its investments. Applied Artificial Intelligence, IoT and Blockchain are the focus areas of investments made so far.