The Serial Entrepreneur's Sixth Sense
Mukesh Bansal has a well-earned reputation for spotting the next big thing in India's consumer landscape. After co-founding the fashion e-commerce giant Myntra in 2007 and leading it to a blockbuster acquisition by Flipkart, he moved on to co-found Cure.fit
(now Cult.fit), fundamentally changing the health and wellness industry. His career is marked by a pattern: identify a burgeoning consumer need, build a tech-first solution, and scale it aggressively. But his investment in Skyroot Aerospace was different. It wasn't a play in the familiar worlds of e-commerce or fitness; it was a leap into deep-tech, a sector with long development cycles, high capital needs, and immense regulatory uncertainty.
An Audacious LinkedIn Message
The story began in 2018. Two former ISRO scientists, Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, had just founded Skyroot Aerospace in Hyderabad. They had a bold vision: to build orbital-class rockets and become India's first private space launch provider. At the time, this was almost unheard of. India's space sector was the exclusive domain of the government-run ISRO. With the regulatory framework for private participation still years away, convincing investors was a near-impossible task. Many venture capitalists preferred the faster returns of internet businesses. Undeterred, the founders sent a cold message to Mukesh Bansal on LinkedIn, outlining their dream.
A Bet Against The Tide
Intrigued by the sheer audacity of the idea, Bansal met the founders. He saw their passion and technical expertise and decided to make a contrarian bet. In 2018, he became Skyroot's first and sole angel investor, putting in an initial Rs 10-12 crore. This investment was made nearly two years before the Indian government formally opened the space sector to private players in 2020. It was a crucial lifeline for the fledgling startup, allowing it to navigate its early years. When the COVID-19 pandemic squeezed finances, Bansal reportedly invested another Rs 2 crore to ensure the team could stay together. This was patient capital in its purest form, driven by a belief in the founders and the long-term potential of the mission rather than immediate market trends.
The Sector's Tipping Point
Bansal's faith was well-placed. In June 2020, the Indian government announced landmark reforms, establishing IN-SPACe as a nodal agency to regulate and promote private participation in space. This move was the inflection point Skyroot and Bansal had been waiting for. It provided the regulatory clarity needed for institutional investors to come on board, transforming the sector from a high-risk gamble to a strategic national priority. Suddenly, private space was mainstream. Following these reforms, Skyroot successfully raised subsequent funding rounds, including a Series B round led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC.
From Seed Capital to Orbit
With solid funding and regulatory support, Skyroot's progress accelerated. In November 2022, the company made history by launching Vikram-S, India's first privately built suborbital rocket. This was followed by an even greater milestone on July 18, 2026, when Skyroot's Vikram-1 rocket successfully delivered payloads into orbit, making India the third country, after the US and China, with a private company capable of orbital launches. The audacious dream pitched in a LinkedIn message had become a historic reality. For Bansal, the early bet paid off spectacularly, reportedly turning his initial investment into a stake worth hundreds of crores.
