Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace on Thursday announced that it had become India's first space-tech unicorn following its latest round of funding of nearly $60 million, taking its valuation to $1.1 billion.
The funding was provided by Sherpalo Ventures, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, the founders of Greenko Group and Arkam Ventures, among others.
In a statement, Ram Shriram, founder of Sherpalo Ventures, said, "Access to space is one of the key challenges of our time. Skyroot is building the foundational infrastructure for that future with the best cost-to-performance ratio in the orbital-launch industry, and what the team has achieved is remarkable." The funding round comes at a time when Skyroot is preparing to launch Vikram-1, India's first privately developed orbital rocket, for its maiden flight.
The rocket is designed to provide dedicated and customisable access to space for global satellite operators.
Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and CEO of Skyroot, in a statement, said, "We at Skyroot are excited about the upcoming Vikram-1 launch, India's first private orbital rocket, marking a significant milestone both for India and the global space sector. This investment signals confidence from some of the world's most reputed investors in Skyroot."
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