Ether Exploration Guild, better known as an Indian space technology etherxThe valuation has increased 5.5x to $80.5 million following its latest funding round. The startup is developing a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable and is preparing engine hot-fire testing ahead of its first technology demonstration flight, planned for 2027.
The Bengaluru-based company has confirmed that it has closed an oversubscribed Series A round of $20.5 million led by TDK Ventures and Big Capital, as TechCrunch previously reported. EtherealX said Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund and Riceberg Ventures also participated. The raise follows a $5 million seed round in August 2024 that valued the startup at $14.6 million.
As India pushes to mature its space ecosystem beyond small launchers and component contracts – it is targeting growth in its space economy $8 billion to $45 billion In the next decade – EtherealX is one of the startups attracting attention.
Satellite operators around the world are looking for greater launch capacity and scheduling flexibility in a market where SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has set the benchmark for pricing and cadence. EtherealX is aiming for that niche with its fully reusable vehicle designed to return both the booster and the upper stage. It’s an approach that, if perfected, could cut per-launch costs and increase flight frequency without relying on the parent constellation to keep rockets fully booked.
EtherealX is developing two engines in-house: an 80-kilonewton “Pegasus” upper-stage engine and a 1.2-meganewton “Stallion” booster engine, with hot-fire tests targeted for June–July. Thrust, measured in kilonewtons and meganewtons, tells how much lift force an engine can produce.
Co-Founder and CEO Manu J. Nair said in an interview that the startup is targeting a November-December 2027 launch window for a technology demonstration vehicle, ahead of commercial missions starting in late 2028.
Rocket engineers also track specific impulse, a widely used proxy for fuel efficiency, which – along with thrust – helps determine how much payload a vehicle can carry for a given amount of propellant.
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The Pegasus engine produces 323 seconds of vacuum-specific impulse and uses a proprietary “full-flow isolated cooling cycle,” described by the startup. The engine integrates an in-house additively manufactured turbopump. Additionally, the Stallion booster engine utilizes a gas-generator cycle and provides a specific impulse of 306 seconds at sea-level.
Nair told TechCrunch that EtherealX plans to cluster multiple engines per stage for its main medium-lift vehicle, called the Razor Crest MK-1, with nine Stallion engines on the booster and 15 Pegasus engines on the upper stage.
For comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 primarily reuses its first stage booster while expending the upper stage. EtherealX is targeting deep reusability by designing its vehicle to return both the booster and the upper stage.
EtherealX’s vehicle aims to carry 24.8 tons in expendable configuration, 22.8 tons when partially reusable, and about 8 tons when fully reusable. The startup is targeting a price of $350 to $2,000 per kilogram, depending on configuration and cadence over time, Nair said.
To support development, EtherealX operates a rocket engine test site in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, known as Base 001, which Nair said is focused on upper-stage engine qualification. The startup has also secured a 150-acre manufacturing and testing complex in the proposed space city in Andhra Pradesh, which is expected to be operational by mid-2026 for integrated engine and stage testing.
EtherealX has signed launch memorandums of understanding worth about $130 million with customers including Japan’s SpaceDB and Taiwan’s space agency, TASA, Nair said, as it seeks early commercial demand ahead of its first demonstration flight.
Nair said the latest funding will be used to complete the flight qualification of the Stallion booster engine and run cluster-firing tests of the Pegasus upper-stage engines. To support that ramp-up, the startup currently employs 67 people and expects to grow that to about 90 over the next two months as it increases manufacturing capacity and moves toward a higher testing cadence ahead of its first demonstration flight.
