Inbound Aerospace, a space-tech startup based at IIT Madras, has raised more than $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, with Piper Serica also participating.
According to a press release from Inbound Aerospace, the new funding will be utilized to expedite the research and development of its re-entry spacecraft, validate important subsystems, and meet important design review milestones.
Inbound Aerospace, which was co-founded in 2025 by Aravind I. B., Vishal Reddy, and Abhijit Bhutey, creates reusable and self-sufficient re-entry vehicles for use in commercial space research, microgravity manufacturing, and in-orbit experiments. With the ISS scheduled to be decommissioned in 2030, the startup’s technology fills a growing void in microgravity infrastructure.
“Microgravity environments are extremely hard to recreate on Earth. Our spacecraft is designed to enable cost-effective, repeatable, and safe return of payloads conducting in-orbit experiments and manufacturing — a capability that’s critical to unlocking the next wave of growth in the space economy,” said Aravind I B, co-founder & CEO of Inbound Aerospace.
Inbound Aerospace claims that its primary goal is to supply a spacecraft platform that makes use of the special microgravity conditions found in space to produce goods that have an influence on and enhance human life on Earth. Customers can expedite their product development timelines by conducting microgravity experiments and in-orbit technology demonstrations using its recoverable spacecraft platform.
Inbound’s re-entry vehicles may play a significant role in facilitating in-orbit testing and large-scale production in light of the Government of India’s Bio3E policy (2024) and the growing interest in space-enabled pharmaceutical, biotech, and material science research.
