Spacetech startup, Skyroot Aerospace has raised $51 million in Series-B financing round led by GIC, making it the largest funding round in the nascent sector.

Post the investment, Mayank Rawat, Managing Director of GIC India Direct Investment Group, will be joining the board of Skyroot.

The four-year-old startup built and tested the country’s first privately developed cryogenic, hypergolic-liquid, and solid fuel-based rocket engines, using advanced composite and 3D-printing technologies in its product development.

“This round will help us get to full-fledged commercial satellite launch scale within a year from now. We have started booking payload slots for our upcoming launches,” Naga Bharath Daka, Co-Founder and COO of Skyroot, said.

The startup is promoting the country’s first privately developed space launch vehicles. The Vikram series of launch vehicles is named after Vikram Sarabhai, the Father of India’s space programme. Built with an all-carbon-fiber structure, they can launch up to 800 kg of payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).