- Agnikul signs NDA with ISRO based on IN-SPACe entity.
- Agnikul, a Chennai based start-up will use facilities from ISRO to aid development and launch until 2022.
- The startup has seen a total investment of $4 million in funding.
Agnikul Cosmos is a Chennai based start-up, engaged in building India’s first ever small satellite launching vehicle, has sign stamped a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the Department of Space (DoS), making it the first company to sign an agreement with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) based on the newly proposed IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center) entity.
This will give the start-up an opportunity to work with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and its technical facilities and figures and knowledge to develop their launch vehicle in India.
Agnikul is an IIT Madras based start-up that is focusing on building vehicles that are customer-centric and make a break through invention as compared to the existing vehicle driven launches. The company launches vehicles at orbits as high as 700KM which will be the maximum distance for now.
Dr. K. Sivan, secretary of DoS and chairman of ISRO, said that encouraging new players like Agnikul to get in to the scene to explore disruptive technologies will help them navigate from the existing conventional methods of manufacturing launching vehicles.
The vehicle named Agnibaan on which the start-up is currently working on will be a rocket with a carrying capacity of 100kg of payload, at low level orbits with a plug-and-play configuration.
Launching and funding for Agnikul’s space-tech project
The launch of Agnibaan is targeted around 2022. CEO and Co-founder of Agnikul told that the NDA with the government will be a huge advantage in helping them speed up their development and testing processes, and to quickly gear up for the launch in 2022.
Agnikul has planned to raise additional funds in the process, as they saw an investment of Rs 23.4 crore in a pre-series A round by pi Ventures back in March this year. Hari Kumar of LionRock Capital, Artha Ventures, Globevestor, LetsVenture were present in the funding round.
They currently use the funds for ground based testing and vehicle qualification, and have received an approximate of $4 million in funding as of now, in their total time of existence.
ISRO’s support to startups that have potential ideas will be an encouragement to all budding organizations looking to make something big in Space Technology in India.
