March 28 (Reuters) – Indian aerospace manufacturer Bellatrix Aerospace has raised $20 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Cactus Partners, it said on Saturday, as it looks to scale up manufacturing and delivery of its propulsion systems.
Bellatrix said the funds would be used to expand manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand from satellite constellations in India and abroad.
“This investment allows us to significantly increase annual production capacity,” its CEO Rohan Ganapathy said.
Founded in 2015, Bengaluru-based Bellatrix manufactures satellite propulsion systems and has operations in the U.S.
Led by equity fund Cactus Partners, the round drew new investors including Hero Investment Office, 35 North Ventures, Indusbridge Ventures and Monarch Holdings, along with existing backers Inflexor, Pavestone, GrowX and Survam Partners.
India has opened the country’s space sector beyond the state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to private players and created a 10 billion rupee ($105.5 million) fund to support startups.
($1 = 94.7770 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru)
