EtherealX raises $20.5M Series A to build reusable rockets

Indian space startup EtherealX has raised a $20.5 million Series A funding round, increasing its valuation 5.5x to $80.5 million. The round was led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, with participation from investors including Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund, and Riceberg Ventures. This funding follows a $5 million seed round in August 2024 that valued the company at $14.6 million.

The investment comes as India targets growth in its space economy from $8 billion to $45 billion over the next decade. Satellite operators worldwide are seeking more launch capacity and scheduling flexibility. EtherealX is aiming to address this demand by developing a fully reusable launch vehicle designed to return both the booster and the upper stage, whereas SpaceX’s Falcon 9 primarily reuses its first-stage booster.

EtherealX is developing two engines for its medium-lift vehicle (a launch vehicle category) named Razor Crest Mk-1, with hot-fire tests targeted for June–July. According to co-founder and CEO Manu J. Nair, the company plans to cluster nine Stallion engines on the booster and 15 Pegasus engines on the upper stage.

The vehicle’s specifications and capacities include:

• Stallion booster engine: Generates 1.2-meganewton thrust, uses a gas-generator cycle (an engine power cycle), and delivers 306 seconds of sea-level specific impulse (a fuel efficiency proxy).
• Pegasus upper-stage engine: Generates 80-kilonewton thrust, delivers 323 seconds of vacuum-specific impulse, uses a “full-flow segregated cooling cycle” (a proprietary engine cooling technology), and integrates an additively manufactured turbopump (a 3D-printed pump).
• Payload capacity: Designed to carry up to 24.8 tons in an expendable configuration, 22.8 tons in a partially reusable configuration, and about 8 tons when fully reusable.
• Target pricing: Nair stated the company is targeting pricing of $350 to $2,000 per kilogram over time.

The company is targeting a November–December 2027 launch window for its first technology demonstration flight, with commercial missions expected to begin toward the end of 2028.

To support this timeline, EtherealX has signed launch memoranda of understanding totaling around $130 million with customers, including Japan’s Space BD and Taiwan’s space agency, TASA. The startup is also expanding its footprint in India, with operations in Tamil Nadu and a 150-acre manufacturing and testing campus in Andhra Pradesh that it expects to become operational from mid-2026. EtherealX plans to use the Series A capital to complete flight qualification of the Stallion booster engine and run clustered-firing tests of the Pegasus engines. The company currently has 67 employees and expects to grow to about 90 over the next two months.

Why it matters

EtherealX is developing a fully reusable launch vehicle designed to return both the booster and upper stage. If successful, this approach could cut per-launch costs and increase flight frequency in a global market where SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has set the benchmark.