Spacetech startup EtherealX has successfully raised $5 million in its seed funding round, spearheaded by YourNest. The funding round also saw participation from BIG Global Investments JSC, BlueHill Capital, Campus Fund, and Golden Sparrow Ventures. Additionally, prominent investors Karan Bhagat & Yatin Shah from IIFL Wealth, Kiran Shetty, and Akhilesh Agarwal joined the round.
The newly acquired funds will be utilized to advance the development of engines for EtherealX’s fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle. This innovation aims to revolutionize space travel by making it more cost-effective and sustainable.
In February of this year, EtherealX secured its first institutional funding from Campus Fund, BlueHill Capital, and Riceberg Ventures, marking the beginning of its journey in the spacetech industry.
Founded in 2022 by Shubhayu Sardar, Manu Nair, and Prashanth Sharma, EtherealX is dedicated to constructing reusable rockets capable of bringing both stages back to earth post-flight. Currently, SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is the only major company that commercially operates orbital launches using reusable rockets, especially in the medium-lift and heavy-lift categories.
Among EtherealX’s ambitious plans is the Razor Crest Mk-1, which is set to become the world’s first fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle. The Razor Crest Mk-1 is designed to dispatch payloads of up to 24.8 tonnes to the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) in an expendable configuration, 22.8 tonnes in a partially reusable configuration, and 8 tonnes in a fully reusable configuration to 400 kilometers LEO.