Three of the country’s ace stock investors — Rakesh Jhunjhunwla, Ashish Kacholia and RK Damani — have picked up stakes in Team Indus, the space start-up that will be sending India’s first privately funded spacecraft to Moon next year.
The three invested at the same time, though separately, in recent weeks, according to Rahul Narayan, co-founder and head of the Bengaluru-based company. Details of the individual stakes or infused amounts were not available.
Team Indus is about to raise its second round of financing, Narayan said, adding: “The overall mission will end up costing us $75 million or around ₹450 crore.”
The start-up is the only Indian contestant among the four from across the world that plan to send spacecraft to soft-land on Moon before end-December 2017, deploy a rover and send lunar pictures from there.
Last year, it won a $1-million milestone prize from Google Lunar X Prize for completing the viable concept of its Moon lander.
The final prize amount stands at $30 million.
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, its angel backer, came on board two years back and is now the single largest investor in the company.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.