Spacetech startup Akashalabdhi raises $1.2 million in pre-seed round

Spacetech startup Akashalabdhi, incubated at the Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID) at IISc Bangalore, has raised pre-seed funding of $1.2 million from investors such as Uday Chatterjee, Romesh Sobti, LVX (formerly LetsVenture), 1Crowd, and Riceberg Ventures.

The company will use the funds to advance the development of Antarikshab, an expandable module for space habitation, orbital logistics, microgravity experiments, and defence applications. A space habitat is a pressurised, tent-like structure made of flexible materials, which are folded and packed for launch, but expand to a larger size once in space.

"Orbital infrastructure is picking up pace because the world is now realising that there are certain materials, drugs, processes that cannot be done on earth but are actually very feasible in space’’, founder and CEO Siddharth Jena told ET.


The human spaceflight segment is also expanding, and increased participation by companies will further enlarge the market, he said.

Not meant for independent habitation, Akashalabdhi's modules aim to expand the capabilities of existing habitats. They will create more room for manpower in space for multiple purposes, including research and space tourism.

ET reported in February this year that the Bengaluru-based startup will trial a prototype of its expandable habitat from a SpaceX launch vehicle in the first quarter of 2026.

The funding round will also support Akashalabdhi's ongoing projects, such as the development of inflatable solar arrays and analogue studies (missions conducted on earth that simulate the conditions of space exploration to test technologies and human behaviour). The startup will also build infrastructure to support advanced research and development in space habitation.

Akashalabdhi caters to both aerospace and defence segments. In its portfolio, there are defence-grade systems besides scalable solutions for space infrastructure.