[Funding alert] Bellatrix Aerospace raises $8 mn in Series A round

Bellatrix Aerospace, an In-space propulsion startup has raised $8 million in its Series A funding round from BASF Venture Capital GmbH, the corporate venture company of BASF SE and Inflexor Ventures LLP, an early-stage deep-tech/IP focused VC Fund.

The funding round also saw participation from Mankind Pharma Family Office, Pavestone Capital, StartupXseed, Survam Partners, Karsemven Fund, and other prominent family offices and investors.

The company plans to use the funds to develop and test four of its thruster modules and go to market with its technology by the end of this year. It will use the new capital to grow the company into a full-fledged space transportation technology company with its unique Orbital Transfer Vehicle, which deploys customer satellites in their orbits as well as geostationary orbit (GEO) and beyond.

Bengaluru-based Bellatrix Aerospace was founded in 2015 by Rohan M Ganapathy and Yashas Karanam, It is a private Indian aerospace manufacturer and smallsat launcher company.

It has secured contracts from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and other undisclosed customers.

It had developed the world’s first commercial microwave plasma thruster, which used water as fuel, and received an order from ISRO.

The startup also features India’s first high-performance green propulsion system, which uses a proprietary high-performance fuel and catalyst, which the company claims is equivalent to the fuel traditionally used for satellite propulsion systems.

“We are elated to onboard new investors on our journey to become a key player in the global space-technology industry. Pre-Series-A funding helped us successfully complete the development of numerous critical technologies in-house. With this investment, we will be expanding our product portfolio, adding to our existing talent pool to broaden our expertise, augment our state-of-the-art infrastructure and focus on validation of our products in space”, said, Rohan M Ganapathy, CEO & CTO, Bellatrix Aerospace.

“Inflexor has always taken a keen interest in technological advancements affecting the space sector, and this is evident from our investment in Bellatrix from our first fund, right from their seed round. We see the space industry is growing exponentially, and Bellatrix’s products will play a major part in democratising access to the space industry with their cost-effective and power-efficient thruster systems, ideal for small satellite manufacturers,” said, Venkat Vallabhaneni, Managing Partner, Inflexor Ventures.

About Bellatrix Aerospace

Bellatrix Aerospace is an Indian New Space company specialising in In-space propulsion systems & orbital launch vehicles. Based out of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the company is constantly evolving to facilitate the development of key technologies in electric propulsion, new generation propellants and launch vehicles.