EtherealX a leading startup in the building of next-gen space launch vehicles, has raised $5 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by YourNest and saw participation from BIG Global Investments JSC, BlueHill Capital, Campus Fund, and Golden Sparrow Ventures, Karan Bhagat & Yatin Shah from IIFL Wealth, Kiran Shetty, and Akhilesh Agarwal. Through this seed fund, EtherealX plans to develop the engines for their fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle.
YourNest Venture Capital announced its first investment in the SpaceTech vertical with a funding of $1.5 mn as part of the $5 mn round raised recently by Ethereal Exploration Guild, a Bangalore-based launch vehicle company building the world’s first fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle.
EtherealX aims to solve this problem with a new fully reusable medium-lift vehicle, offering absolute
reusability to help reduce transportation costs and cut launch timeframes. Unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which provides partial reusability by bringing its booster back to Earth after successful launches, EtherealX is designing its vehicles to get both the upper stage and booster back.
Commenting on the funding, Manu J. Nair, CEO, said, “The funds from this round will be utilized towards the completion of our test facility, final tests and qualification of the 40kN engine for the upper stage, and for the manufacturing of the 925kN semi-cryogenic engine.”
“Class-specific launch vehicles have always been limiting, both technologically and cost-wise. We solve this with a clear tech advantage, addressing both frequency and pricing challenges. We’re thrilled our investors share this broader vision for our civilization and high-impact technology. Together, we shall recalibrate the preconceived notions of what’s possible.”, Manu added.
Ranjeet Shetye, Venture Partner at YourNest, affirmed that “In our continued commitment to India’s
DeepTech startup ecosystem, we are unanimous that EtherealX represents the focussed convergence
of all the values that we seek in daring founders who challenge the status quo. Their individual
experiences feed into their unified zeal, and their trail-blazing structural technology makes EtherealX
the company that will jumpstart humanity’s expansion into deep space.”
Preetinder S Panjrath, CFO of BIG Capital commented “We are delighted to join EtherealX in its vision
to make space exploration and transportation more cost-effective and scalable. We are big believers
in Indian Space companies’ ability to challenge their Western counterparts by delivering better
solutions at a fraction of their cost. Having backed several successful space ventures globally, we
envision EtherealX will transform the space transportation industry with its launch vehicles that can
turn around in hours for their next mission enabling advancement in verticals from agriculture to
space mining and outer space.”
Established in 2022 by a team of engineers and scientists who previously worked with India’s space
agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation , Manu J. Nair, Shubhayu Sardar, and aerospace engineer Prashant Sharma in Bengaluru, this with its medium-lift vehicle, Razor Crest Mk-1. Designed for full reusability, the vehicle is capable of launching 8 tons into the lower Earth orbit. It can also carry payloads of over 24.8 tons into the lower Earth orbit in a disposableconfiguration and 22.8 tons in a partially reusable configuration. Additionally, it is designed to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer and trans-lunar injection orbits.
The vision of the Guild is to move the needle significantly in humanity’s quest for civilizational progress. Razor Crest Mk-1 aims to achieve absolute reusability in launch vehicles and substantially reduce space transportation costs to enable rapid growth in the space sector. It will be a direct counterpart from India to the likes of SpaceX and will operate in the rapidly growing upstream segment.
Over the last few years, India has made significant progress in the space tech industry, with global
acknowledgment on record. Much of the credit for this goes to ISRO, but recent developments have also brought a handful of private sector companies to the forefront, in an industry where the sky is not the limit.