Transcription
3, 2, 1, zero. And we have liftoff of Vikram 1, India's first private orbital launch vehicle. Normal.
Last week, a rocket took off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. And this was just like a regular launch. A four-stage rocket putting satellites in Earth's orbit. I mean, ISRO has done this so many times in the past. But what made this one special is that it was for the first time ever that a private Indian company reached Earth's orbit. And India became only the third country after the US and China to achieve this milestone. And this is what makes it a big deal.
Welcome to our weekly Indian startup news show. I'm Panka, your host, and you're watching Backstage with Millennials. See, for almost 70 years since independence, space was a government monopoly in India. ISRO was the one who designed the rockets, built them, and launched them. Basically, they had end-to-end control of it. And all this while, some private companies existed as vendors to ISRO, but nothing more than that.
But this changed in 2020 when the government opened up the space sector for private players to enter. And the government also set up IN-SPACe, which was a dedicated agency to help the private space companies and increase the collaboration with ISRO. So now, it was like ISRO will focus on important and deep space missions like Mangalyaan and Chandrayaan, while private players can go after the launch market.
Skyroot was the first private company to sign an agreement with ISRO for using its facilities like launch and testing infra. And with ISRO's help, Skyroot successfully launched a rocket in space back in 2022, which was the first privately developed rocket to reach space in India. And that was just a proof of concept. It was only 6 meters tall, and it was just a single-stage rocket. But what Skyroot has launched now, Vikram 1, this is the real deal.
Vikram 1 is a four-stage orbital rocket, and it can carry satellites up to 350 kg. Now, obviously, you can't compare it with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket because that's been developed and improved upon over the last many years. But we can certainly compare it with SpaceX's Falcon 1, which was their first rocket. And when you compare these two, there is certainly a big win for Skyroot Aerospace. And that's because SpaceX's first mission failed three times before a successful launch, whereas Skyroot has had a successful launch on its first attempt.
And that's just one achievement. Another impressive thing about Skyroot Aerospace is the cost factor. Skyroot has raised a total of $150 million in funding till now. Against this, other players like SpaceX, Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab, and even Chinese companies have spent billions of dollars to reach Earth's orbit. So basically, Skyroot has proved to the world that India can now manufacture orbital launch capability at a cost structure that no other country can match, and that is a big deal.
But now, I feel that this is done. We always knew that the Indian space sector is great at efficiency and engineering. But now, the bigger challenge for companies like Skyroot is, can it also become a commercial success? Can it compete with the likes of SpaceX and Rocket Lab to win global contracts? And that's exactly what its founder, Pawan Kumar Chandana, has also said after the launch. According to him, "We have spent years developing launch vehicles. The engineering work helped us reach orbit in the first mission. But now we are entering the flight space, which brings us closer to regular operations and commercial launches."
Basically, what Pawan is saying is that building rockets is done. That's a thing of the past. The real challenge is to do regular launches and also make it commercially viable. See, in the last few years, the number of satellites being built has grown sharply. Companies in the defense sector, climate tech, telecom, disaster management, all of them want to put their satellites in space. But the launching capacity has not increased at the same pace. And so now, Skyroot has a big, big opportunity to tap into this market, and not just in the domestic market, but the international market.
See, the issue with SpaceX is that they're one, comparatively expensive, and two, their payload capacity is big, and which means multiple satellites have to share the space on every mission. And this is the gap that Skyroot can go after. According to Pawan, "Many customers need a dedicated launch to a specific orbit on a specific timeline rather than sharing space on a larger mission."
According to this Fortune Business Insight report, the global small launch vehicle market was valued at $3.06 billion in 2026 and it's growing at 5.1% CAGR, which is not a lot as of now, but it's enough for Indian companies to go after and build a very big business. But of course, these are just estimates. Skyroot has a long, long way to go. With this launch, they've just proved that the engineering works. But in order to attract global contracts, they have to build a well-oiled machine like SpaceX, which is reliable and does continuous launches throughout the year.
And the government's role here will be very, very important. See, one reason SpaceX succeeded is because they got a lot of government help in the early days. In fact, one government contract of $1.5 billion literally saved SpaceX from bankruptcy. And now, the Indian government has to do the same with Indian companies. The government has to give regular and predictable orders to Indian space companies, which will allow them to become sustainable and use the money for future research and development work and build much more important technology in the future.
As for Skyroot, they're now working on Vikram 2, which is a medium-lift launch rocket with a payload capacity of up to 900 kg, so almost 3x of Vikram 1. And the company is aiming for its maiden flight sometime in 2027. So, it'll be very interesting to track Skyroot's journey from here on and see if they can successfully become a major global player.
All right, next up, Asher Grover has launched a new fintech venture called Fund My Stuff, which is a platform that enables companies to act as guarantors for their employees seeking small ticket personal loans. According to the app's listing on Google Play, instead of relying solely on the borrower's credit profile, Fund My Stuff will consider their employer's creditworthiness and financial profile to facilitate loan approvals.
And this is actually a genuine problem. Millions of people, especially the blue-collar workers, struggle to get loans from banks since they don't have a credit history and also they don't have anyone as a guarantor. And so these people end up taking informal loans at a very heavy interest rate, which is sometimes as high as 50%. And it's not just blue-collar workers. Even people like me and you, we struggle with deciding which is the best loan for us. We have so many options, and all the existing distributors, they sell us whichever loan that gives them the highest commission. And we just have no control over things like the loan duration, interest rate, prepayment, and also with the restructuring of these loans.
And this is something that we are trying to solve at Finanjo with a recent feature, Borrow. Financial lets you book a completely free one-on-one consultation with a loan professional to discuss your financial situation and borrowing requirements. And depending on what kind of loan you want and what's your repayment capacity, we suggest you all the options that you have. And if we think that you should not take a loan at your current situation, we will also tell you that.
So if you're looking for a loan of any kind, home, personal, business loan, loan against property, gold loan, education loan, or if you just want to understand what and all loan options you have, book a free session with a loan expert in the Finanjo app. If you already have the app, you can find the Borrow feature on the track screen. And if you don't have the app, you can download it both from the App Store and the Play Store. I'll also provide a link in the description for you to download Finanjo. And now, coming back to our video.
All right, moving on to some quick news updates. According to E-commerce CEO Albinder Dhindsa, the discounting wars in the quick commerce industry may finally be coming to an end. And that's because over the last year, all the big companies, especially Zepto, have given deep discounts to attract customers. But Albinder thinks that's it. According to him, "We don't think there's a lot of wiggle room for people to go much deeper than what they are currently doing because that would multiply losses very significantly."
Now, of course, this is happening when big players like Amazon and Flipkart have not even entered the space with full force. So, it'll be very interesting to see how this discount war plays out in the future.
All right, next up, Zerodha is going after a brand new market segment. Last month, the company filed for a Category 1 merchant banking license, which will allow Zerodha to take companies public, advise on M&As and buyouts, and also underwrite various kinds of issues. Basically, Zerodha is getting into the same domain where players like SBI Capital Markets, Kotak Investment Banking, Axis Capital, and ICICI Securities are already there.
All right, next up, it seems that BigBasket has finally given up on the quick commerce race. According to an ET report, BigBasket will reduce its footprint from 76 cities to around 40. And they're doing this because they're losing money and there seems to be no way of becoming profitable. According to an expert, what's happening at BigBasket is not just a regular cost-cutting exercise. The company is rethinking its model. Basically, BigBasket has realized that it's not worth it to fight in the space which has giants like Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto, and now also Flipkart and Amazon.
All right, moving on to the funding news segment of today's video. This week, Indian startups raised a total of $173 million, which is significantly lower than last week's $533 million. And here are some of the startups that have raised funds this week.
To begin with, there is residential rooftop solar startup called SolarSquare, which has raised $53 million in its Series C round. And one of the investors in this round is MS Dhoni's family office. According to the company, they have set up rooftop solar systems in more than 50,000 homes across 29 cities till now, and they're going to use these new funds to expand into 30 to 40 new cities.
The next startup I want to talk about is wealth tech startup Varticus, which has raised 387 crore rupees or almost $40 million. Varticus provides technology and wealth management solutions for financial advisors and wealth creators, and it currently works with more than 500 wealth creators who collectively manage assets worth more than 1.2 lakh crore rupees. And the company wants to use these new funds to expand its network of wealth creators and also expand beyond metro cities in India.
Next, we have instant medicine delivery startup Pharmeasy, which has raised $15 million in its Series A round. Founded in 2024, Pharmeasy operates a pharmacy-first quick commerce platform that focuses on medicine availability through AI-powered inventory management and 15 to 30-minute delivery. And this funding came at a time when there is competition heating up in the space with Flipkart, Blinkit, Zepto, and even Amazon getting into the instant medicine delivery space.
And finally, we have AI-powered health tech startup Karpel.ai, which has raised $10 million in its Series A funding round. Founded in 2018, Karpel.ai is a health tech SaaS startup that provides an AI platform which enables hospitals and radiologists to deploy, manage, and monitor multiple medical imaging AI applications through a single software interface. Currently, the company works with 30 hospitals and medical centers across the world.
All right, that's all the startup news I have for you this week. Do check out the Finanjo app by clicking on the link in the description. We have released many helpful features like a subscription tracker and split payments in the last few days. And if you have the older version of the app, you can update it to try out these new features. But anyways, I hope you liked everything we discussed in this video. As always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next.