Meet investor who helped Skyroot become India's first space-tech unicorn
What's the story
Skyroot Aerospace has become India's first space-tech unicorn after raising $60 million (approximately ₹570 crore) in a funding round. The round was co-led by Sherpalo Ventures, the investment firm of Ram Shriram, one of Alphabet Inc.'s first investors and board members. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC also co-led the funding round. Other participants included BlackRock, Greenko Group founders, Arkam Ventures, Playbook Partners, and Shanghvi Family Office.
Valuation surge
Skyroot's valuation doubles to $1.1 billion
The latest funding round has doubled Skyroot's valuation from around $550 million in 2023 to a whopping $1.1 billion. This makes it the first Indian private space company to achieve unicorn status. With this investment, the total funds raised by the private company now exceed $160 million (around ₹1,500 crore).
Investor profile
Who is Ram Shriram?
Ram Shriram graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Loyola College, Chennai, University of Madras. He began his career at Bell-Northern Research and went on to become the vice president of Netscape in 1994. Later, he was the president of Junglee, an online comparison shopping company that Amazon acquired in 1998. After this acquisition, Shriram served as Amazon's VP of business development before founding Sherpalo Ventures in January 2000.
Investment history
Skyroot's journey with Sherpalo Ventures
Sherpalo Ventures led a $4.5 million bridge round for Skyroot in January 2022, with participation from Wami Capital and existing investors such as former WhatsApp chief business officer Neeraj Arora and ex-Google executive Amit Singhal. Later that year, Sherpalo also participated in Skyroot's $51 million Series B led by GIC. The current funding round further strengthens their four-year-long relationship across three fundraises.
Investor confidence
Shriram praised Skyroot's achievements
In a statement, Shriram said he has believed in the Skyroot team since their early days. He emphasized that "access to space is one of the key challenges of our time." He praised Skyroot for building the foundational infrastructure for this future with the best cost-to-performance ratio in the orbital-launch industry and called their achievements remarkable.
Company evolution
About Skyroot Aerospace
Founded in 2018 by former ISRO engineers Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, Skyroot offers on-demand satellite launch services with a focus on low-cost launch vehicles. In 2022, it became the first Indian private firm to launch a rocket into space with its Vikram-S sub-orbital mission. The company made an orbital launch in 2023 and is now preparing for the imminent launch of Vikram-1.
Strategic focus
Space sector as 'once in a lifetime opportunity'
The fresh capital raised by Skyroot will be used to establish a high cadence of Vikram-1 launches, scale up manufacturing, and develop Vikram-2. Chandana had earlier called India's space sector a "once in a lifetime opportunity," noting that the policy environment and global investor appetite have changed dramatically since 2018. He argued that launch capability is still a critical bottleneck in the global space economy, which is worth about $600 billion and expected to triple by 2030.