India's Green Aero, Astrobase Bet on Indigenous Propulsion

India's aerospace propulsion gap has long been described as slow-moving, capital-intensive, and dominated by a short list of global suppliers. Two Bengaluru-founded startups—Green Aero and Astrobase—are now testing engine cores that aim to change that, one betting on hydrogen turbines, the other on methane rocket propulsion.

What's happening

Green Aero, founded in late 2023 by Dr Prithwish Kundu (a former research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory), is developing turbine engines targeted at drones, aircraft, naval vessels, and civil aviation. The company test-fired what it describes as the first hydrogen-powered aero engine core built in India, called the Blue Dragon. Kundu has said the company is targeting efficiency roughly twice that of current global engines, and has framed the strategy as indigenizing propulsion for both civilian and defense aviation simultaneously.

Astrobase, founded in Bengaluru in 2024 by Neeraj Khandelwal (co-founder of CoinDCX) and former ISRO scientist Devakumar Thammisetty, is building a rocket engine that burns methane with liquid oxygen using full-flow staged combustion—a technically demanding approach that, per the report, has only been successfully flown once before, by SpaceX's Raptor engine. Astrobase plans three vehicle configurations (expendable, partly reusable, fully reusable) carrying three-to-ten-tonne payloads, with seven engines clustered under a reusable medium-lift rocket. Engine components are made using 3D printing, and the company operates a 21.5-acre testing facility in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh.

Timeline of key milestones

Late 2023: Green Aero founded.
2024: Astrobase founded in Bengaluru.
July 2025: Green Aero announces a Rs 14 crore ($1.6M) seed round and says it will bring a first small-category engine to market within 12 months.
September 2025: Astrobase hot-fires a sub-scale version of its engine.
January 2026: Astrobase runs its turbopumps.
June 2026: IN-SPACe selects Astrobase as one of the first three recipients under its Technology Adoption Fund.
2026: Astrobase announces a European partnership with Impulso Space; a first full-scale integrated hot fire is expected.
2027: Astrobase plans a hop-test demonstrator.
2029: Astrobase targets a maiden orbital launch.

The numbers

Green Aero's seed round was reported at Rs 14 crore ($1.6 million), led by pi Ventures with Antler participating. However, a company listing cited in the same source reports different figures—signed long-term contracts worth about $3 million and total funding of $1.8 million. Sources differ on Green Aero's exact funding total, which the report flags as a possible sign of inconsistent public disclosure.

Astrobase raised roughly $10 million in its first round, led by Banyan, and has put more than Rs 100 crore into propulsion and manufacturing infrastructure. Separately, the company was selected from 43 applicants for IN-SPACe's Technology Adoption Fund, which covers up to 60% of project costs, capped at Rs 25 crore per project. The supported project is an 800 kilonewton liquid oxygen/methane engine.

Why founders should care

For early-stage founders—particularly in deep tech and hardware—these two cases offer several probabilistic signals worth weighing:

The funding-figure discrepancy around Green Aero may indicate that inconsistent disclosure across seed announcements and company listings could create friction with future investors or partners; consistent reporting is likely to matter more as diligence scales.
Astrobase's phased approach—sub-scale hot fire, then turbopump tests, then a government grant—could suggest a de-risking playbook that other capital-intensive hardware startups might consider replicating rather than pursuing an all-at-once buildout.
Non-dilutive programs like the IN-SPACe Technology Adoption Fund appear to signal a viable funding path for hardware founders who want to preserve equity while still funding expensive testing infrastructure, though such programs likely come with government dependency risk if policy or budgets shift.
Astrobase's multi-year roadmap (hop test in 2027, orbital launch in 2029) suggests that founders in similarly long-cycle deep-tech categories should plan for extended runway and prepare investors for years of pre-revenue milestones rather than rapid commercialization.
Betting on a technically unproven approach—full-flow staged combustion has reportedly flown successfully only once, by SpaceX—could indicate elevated technical risk that founders should weigh carefully against the capital and specialized talent required to pursue it.

What's missing from the picture

Several open questions remain unaddressed in available reporting. There's no detail on Green Aero's current revenue, customer contracts, or certification timeline for the Blue Dragon core, and it's unclear whether the company met its stated 12-month goal (from July 2025) of bringing a small-category engine to market. Similarly, no information is available on Astrobase's total costs, burn rate, or how the Technology Adoption Fund grant will be disbursed over time. It also remains unclear how Green Aero's hydrogen turbines and Astrobase's methane rocket engines relate technically beyond both being Indian propulsion startups, and no independent verification exists for Kundu's stated efficiency claims.

The bottom line

Both companies are chasing a real gap: engine development globally is slow, capital-heavy, and closely held among a handful of suppliers. Green Aero and Astrobase represent two different bets on closing that gap in India—one through hydrogen turbines for aviation and defense, the other through methane rocket propulsion for orbital launch. Government backing, in the form of the Technology Adoption Fund, and early venture capital suggest institutional appetite is building. But the long timelines, technical difficulty of Astrobase's chosen combustion cycle, and unresolved questions around Green Aero's funding disclosures mean execution risk remains high for both.