Skyroot Aerospace
Pawan Kumar Chandana (Co-founder & CEO)
Data verified as of Aug 18, 2026
Summary
Skyroot Aerospace builds small-satellite launch vehicles in Hyderabad and on July 18, 2026 became the first private Indian company to reach orbit, making India the third country after the United States and China with a privately developed orbital launcher. Vikram-1, a 22-meter carbon-composite rocket with three solid stages and a 3D-printed restartable liquid upper stage, lifted off from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre after a 35-minute hold and delivered its payloads to a roughly 450 km orbit about 15 minutes later, a first-attempt orbital success that almost no launch company has managed. Founded in 2018 by former ISRO engineers Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, the company had already flown India's first private rocket, the suborbital Vikram-S, in November 2022. Two months before the orbital flight it became India's first space-tech unicorn, raising about $60 million at a $1.1 billion valuation from GIC and Sherpalo Ventures with BlackRock-managed funds joining, taking total capital raised to roughly $160 million. The industrial bet behind the launch record is Infinity Campus, a 200,000 sq ft Hyderabad factory inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2025 and designed to turn out one orbital rocket a month. Next comes a second Vikram-1 test flight, commercial service in 2027, and Vikram-2, a cryogenic-upper-stage vehicle carrying 900 kg to low Earth orbit that the company targets for late 2027.
Main Products
Skyroot's orbital small-satellite launcher: about 22 meters tall, built from carbon composite rather than metal, with three solid stages (Kalam-1200, Kalam-250, Kalam-100) and a 3D-printed Raman liquid upper stage that can start, stop, and restart in space to place payloads precisely. It carries 350 kg to a 500 km low Earth orbit or 260 kg to sun-synchronous polar orbit, and reached orbit on its first flight, July 18, 2026.
Flown once, successfully. A second test flight is planned before commercial service begins in 2027.
The heavier follow-on, built around the Dhawan cryogenic upper stage that burns liquid natural gas and liquid oxygen and is 3D-printed in-house. It is designed for 900 kg to low Earth orbit and 600 kg to sun-synchronous polar orbit, roughly tripling Skyroot's addressable payload class. Dhawan-III validated a 145-second endurance burn in February 2026.
Engine testing underway; first flight targeted for late 2027.
The single-stage suborbital demonstrator that flew Mission Prarambh on November 18, 2022, reaching about 89.5 km and becoming the first privately built Indian rocket to launch. It proved the solid propulsion, avionics, and stage design that Vikram-1 later carried to orbit, and it remains the company's proof that the 2020 reforms were real.
Flew once as a technology demonstrator in November 2022; superseded by Vikram-1.
What's Next
Fly a second Vikram-1 test mission
Skyroot says another Vikram-1 test flight comes before commercial operations begin, the flight that turns a single successful debut into evidence of a repeatable vehicle. One orbital success is the hardest thing a launch startup does and the least informative about cadence.
Begin commercial Vikram-1 launches
CEO Pawan Chandana says Vikram-1 will be ready for commercial customers in 2027, with roughly 80% of payload demand expected from outside India. Post-launch customer engagements are converting into firm contracts, which the company plans to announce as they are signed.
First flight of the cryogenic Vikram-2
Vikram-2 pairs the solid lower stages with the 3D-printed Dhawan cryogenic upper stage for 900 kg to low Earth orbit, moving Skyroot out of the smallest launch class. Dhawan-III cleared a 145-second endurance burn in February 2026; liftoff is targeted for the end of 2027.
The Infinity Campus factory is built for one orbital rocket a month and Skyroot aims to be launching at that rate by the end of 2027. Manufacturing capacity is the claim that is easiest to state and hardest to prove, and it is the number that decides whether the company competes for real commercial volume.
Operations & Revenue
One orbital flight completed, from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, where Skyroot launches under the private-access framework created by India's 2020 space reforms. Vehicles are built at Infinity Campus in Hyderabad, the roughly 200,000 sq ft factory opened in November 2025 and rated by the company at one rocket a month, alongside the earlier 60,000 sq ft MAX-Q development facility. The near-term plan is a second Vikram-1 test flight before commercial service begins in 2027, with the cryogenic Vikram-2 targeted for late 2027 and a cadence goal of one launch a month by the end of that year.
Revenue Streams
Dedicated small-satellite launch
The core business: dedicated Vikram-1 flights for operators who want a specific orbit and a specific date rather than waiting for a rideshare slot. Commercial service is targeted for 2027, and Skyroot positions dedicated launch against SpaceX rideshare on schedule control rather than price per kilogram.
Key Metrics
Employees
1,000+ (2026)
Est. Annual Revenue
Effectively pre-revenue. The July 2026 flight was a test mission carrying demonstration payloads rather than a paid commercial launch, and Skyroot says commercial Vikram-1 service starts in 2027. The company is private and does not disclose revenue; management says post-launch customer interest is converting into firm contracts that will be announced as signed.
Timeline
On May 7, 2026 Skyroot raises about $60 million co-led by GIC and Sherpalo Ventures at a $1.1 billion valuation, with BlackRock-managed funds, Playbook Partners, the Shanghvi Family Office, the Greenko founders, and Arkam Ventures participating. Total capital raised reaches roughly $160 million, earmarked for Vikram-1 cadence, manufacturing capacity, and Vikram-2.
Mission Aagaman lifts off from Sriharikota at 2:35 a.m. Eastern on July 18, 2026 after a 35-minute hold for a technical issue found at T-5 minutes, and reaches a roughly 450 km orbit about 15 minutes later. It carries a Skyroot satellite, a cubesat from Indian startup Grahaa Space, a technology demonstration payload from Germany's Dcubed, and a debris-removal robotic arm from Indian startup Cosmoserve. Skyroot becomes the first private Indian company in orbit and, by its own account, the first launch company anywhere to reach orbit on a debut flight.
The Kalam-1200 solid booster, the first stage of Vikram-1, completes a 110-second static fire on August 8, 2025, the largest motor Skyroot had tested and the last big propulsion gate before the orbital attempt. Kalam-250 had been static-tested in March 2024 and Kalam-100 in April 2025.
Narendra Modi opens Infinity Campus in Hyderabad on November 27, 2025, a roughly 200,000 sq ft facility for designing, building, integrating, and testing launch vehicles, with a stated capacity of one orbital rocket per month. The fully built Vikram-1 is unveiled at the same event.
Skyroot unveils MAX-Q on October 24, 2023, a 60,000 sq ft integrated rocket development facility near Hyderabad's airport with room for about 300 people, then raises $27.5 million in a pre-Series C led by Temasek on October 30, taking cumulative funding to roughly $95 million.
Vikram-S, a single-stage suborbital demonstrator, lifts off from Sriharikota on November 18, 2022 and reaches about 89.5 km, validating Skyroot's solid propulsion, avionics, and stage design. It is the first rocket built by an Indian private company to fly, and the mission name means 'the beginning'.
On September 25, 2020 Skyroot test-fires Dhawan-I, a fully 3D-printed cryogenic engine burning liquid natural gas and liquid oxygen, and the first cryogenic engine developed by a private Indian company. The Dhawan line becomes the upper stage of the future Vikram-2.
Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka leave the Indian Space Research Organisation to start Skyroot in Hyderabad on June 12, 2018, betting that India's launch monopoly would open to private builders. It did: the 2020 space reforms let private companies build and fly their own orbital rockets from ISRO's spaceport.
Funding
Cumulative disclosed raise · dated rounds
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