Space Tech Startup Bellatrix Aerospace Raises $8 Mn in Funding Led By BASF Venture Capital and Inflexor Ventures

Rohan Ganapathy, CEO & CTO (L), and Yashas Karanam, COO (R) of Bellatrix Aerospace. [Far-Right - Prototype of Microwave Electrothermal Thruster Built in circa 2015]

Bellatrix Aerospace, a full-suite solution provider of spacecraft propulsion systems based in Bangalore, India offering both chemical and electric propulsion technologies, is raising a Series A round led by BASF Venture Capital GmbH, the corporate venture company of BASF SE, and Inflexor Ventures LLP, an early stage deeptech/IP focused VC Fund.

The round also includes participation from StartupXseed, Pavestone Capital, Mankind Pharma family office, Survam Partners, Karsemven Fund, and other prominent family offices and angel investors.

In the past ten years, the number of satellites in space has increased almost tenfold, and based on announced private-sector missions is likely to multiply rapidly in the next ten years. In-space propulsion systems that save costs and use more environmentally friendly technologies are increasingly relevant to the growing satellite market. Orbital Transfer Vehicles are becoming the new means of reaching orbit on rideshare missions for micro and small satellites.

Founded by Rohan Ganapathy and Yashas Karanam in 2015, the Bengaluru-based company has pioneered several firsts in the industry, including the world’s first commercial Microwave Plasma Thruster, India’s first privately built Hall Effect Thruster system, and India’s first High-Performance Green Propulsion system. The company is committed to ESG compliance and sustainability with its impetus on greener technologies. The Microwave Plasma Thruster uses water as a propellant and the Green Monopropellant Thruster uses a proprietary high-performance fuel and catalyst, that is not only more eco-friendly but also easier to handle than conventionally used fuels for satellite propulsion systems. The company aims to utilize the funds for the development and testing of its 4 thruster modules and go to market by the end of the year with its technology. 

The funds are also used towards the company’s evolution into a full-fledged space transportation technology company with its unique Orbital Transfer Vehicle with capabilities to deploy customer satellites to their orbits quickly as well as perform missions to the geostationary orbit (GEO) and beyond. Bellatrix has bagged contracts from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and other undisclosed customers. The space qualification testing is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Rohan Ganapathy, CEO & CTO (L), and Yashas Karanam, COO (R) of Bellatrix Aerospace. The background shows a high vacuum test facility of Bellatrix, the thrusters will be tested inside these facilities.

Rohan M Ganapathy, CEO & CTO, Bellatrix Aerospace, said, “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.”

“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 democratizing 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.

“The technologies being developed for use in space have the potential to offer many opportunities for the chemical industry, for example in new materials and for innovative application cases of chemistry on earth and in orbit. In India in particular, this industry is currently experiencing an unprecedented upturn," explains Markus Solibieda, Managing Director of BASF Venture Capital GmbH. "It is BVC's task to invest in young companies with disruptive technologies. We are pleased to be able to support Bellatrix, an up-and-coming company with promising technologies for the space industry, and look forward to exploring opportunities for collaboration", adds Markus.
About BASF Venture Capital

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF Venture Capital GmbH (BVC) also contributes to this corporate purpose. Founded in 2001, BVC has offices in Europe, the U.S., Canada, China, India, Brazil, and Israel. BVC’s goal is to generate new growth potential for current and future business areas of BASF by investing in young companies and funds. The focus of investment is on new materials, AgTech, Digitization, and new, disruptive business models. Further information at www.basf-vc.com.

About Bellatrix Aerospace

Founded in 2015, Bellatrix Aerospace is a full-suite solution provider of in-space propulsion systems based in Bengaluru, India offering both chemical and electric propulsion technologies. The company has set up one of Asia’s largest research facilities at SID-IISc for building technologies for satellite propulsion and developed a strong IP portfolio around technologies that redefine in-space mobility. In recognition for its innovations, Bellatrix has garnered various recognitions for its innovation, including two National Awards. https://bellatrix.aero/

About Inflexor Ventures

Inflexor Ventures is an early-stage deeptech/IP-focused venture capital firm investing in next-gen tech-backed founding teams changing the way we live and work. The fund is on a mission to find and support audacious founders building technologies that define the future. The focus areas are space-tech, climate-tech, health-tech, fin-tech, consumer-tech, clean-tech, edu-tech, deep-tech, and agri-tech among others. https://www.inflexor.vc/

SatSure - Bellatrix Aerospace Signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Establishing a High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

At the Bellatrix Aerospace office in Bangalore, from left to right, Rohan Muralidhar, CEO, and Yashas Karanam, COO of Bellatrix Aerospace with Prateep Basu, CEO, and Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, CTO of SatSure AG

BENGALURU, India, Feb. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global space industry has been growing rapidly since the last decade. India has contributed to it through its NewSpace companies and the recent formation of InSpace by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

SatSure, founded in 2016 with core business in enterprise AI-based software products and platforms, has seen a surge in demand post-COVID-19 for data insights and solutions based on high-resolution satellite imagery at affordable price points that helps in decision making across the aviation, banking, insurance, and transportation, sectors.

While Bellatrix Aerospace, an IP driven company founded in 2015 and working on advanced spacecraft propulsion systems, is currently expanding its business towards being a prime contractor for developing and operating unconventional satellite platforms for highly demanding mission requirements.

In this respect, on February 3rd, 2021, SatSure has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bellatrix Aerospace to help place its payloads in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The satellites will host a novel on-board processor for in-orbit high-resolution data processing using SatSure's proprietary Deep Learning algorithms and ultra low-bandwidth data transmission on a microsatellite platform comprising of Bellatrix Aerospace's unique hybrid propulsion systems. The missions will be supported by Bellatrix Aerospace's agile satellite platform currently under development and powered by its unique hybrid propulsion technology. SatSure and Bellatrix Aerospace plan to have the first satellite of the proposed constellation launched by December 2022. A return for proposal (RFP) for payload design, integration and testing will be made available to the industry in the coming weeks.

Mr Prateep Basu, CEO & Co-Founder at SatSure AG, said, "We are very excited about this partnership with Bellatrix Aerospace. This investment from our side is a natural step to providing timely and unique insights from space to our clients globally. Many breakthrough technologies will be demonstrated in the first mission, be it the hardware, software, or hardware-software integration. It is a hazardous mission, but then no innovation has ever been done without trial and errors."

Speaking about this partnership, Mr Rohan Muralidhar, CEO of Bellatrix Aerospace, said, "We see great synergies with SatSure on this mission, which we believe will set new benchmarks for frugal innovation. With this constellation, SatSure's proven capabilities in satellite data processing and pipelines will be further augmented with the help of high-resolution real-time imagery. This is also a significant announcement for Bellatrix, as we will be working on more of such missions catering to very niche mission requirements."

Bellatrix Aerospace is a full-suite solution provider of spacecraft propulsion systems based in Bangalore, India offering both chemical and electric propulsion technologies. The company has various recognitions for its innovation, including two National Awards.

SatSure is a World Economic Forum Global Innovator, providing decision intelligence by leveraging advances in satellites, machine learning and Big Data analytics across multiple domains like banking, insurance, agriculture, forestry, public infrastructure, and oil & gas. The company is based in St. Gallen (Switzerland), Bangalore (India), Liverpool (U.K.), and Sydney (Australia).

IISc-based Startup Bellatrix Aerospace Raises $3 Mn to build Re-Usable Space Launch Vehicles

Bangalore-based Bellatrix Aerospace, a new Space company specializing in In-space propulsion systems & orbital launch vehicles, has raised $3 million in pre-Series A round of funding led by group of venture capital investors that include IDFC-Parampara, StartupXseed, Karsemven Fund and Survam Partners.

GrowX Ventures and bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, through KA Enterprises also contributed in the round. Incubators -- CIIE of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Bombay's SINE also participated.

Bellatrix will use the raised capital in increasing the team size, which currently consists of 14 people. The startup first raised funding from all Indian investors but now its reaching out globally for its next round.

Formed in 2015, by Yashas Karanam and Rohan M Ganapathy, Bellatrix is based out of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore's Entrepreneurship center Society for Innovation and Development (SID), and is developing key technologies in electric propulsion, new generation propellants and launch vehicles. With its dedicated Launch Vehicles for Nano-Satellites and In-Space Propulsion Systems, the startup aims to offer affordable access to Space.

The young space tech startup is said to be developing two product lines with the aim of making space travel greener and more affordable. It has two launch rockets in the pipeline, with both models having re-usable features that can reduce the cost of space travel.

Building propulsion systems for all sizes of satellites, Bellatrix's first product is an electric propulsion system that runs on water

The startup is also making satellite propulsion systems, using a frontier technology that employs water as a propellant while heating it with microwave-induced plasma. One of its two-stage launch rocket, Chetak, is planned for 2023 launch.

Chetak is a two stage, all-carbon composite constructed vehicle that use liquid methane as fuel and the first stage is designed for reuse.

Notably, Bellatrix counts Dr. M.R. Srinivasan among its advisory, who is a recipient of Padma Vibhushan award for his immense contributions to nuclear science and technology. Dr Srinivasan retired as Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary Department of Atomic Energy in 1990 as one of the towering personalities who ably guided Indian Nuclear Programme.