Cosmochute Raises $1.5 Million — Startup Funding India, October 2026

Startup funding in India is reaching for the Moon: Ahmedabad-based space robotics startup Cosmochute has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Accel and Prosus Ventures through their Atoms X programme, with Business Standard and Entrackr reporting the round on October 15, 2026.

The round also saw participation from IIMA Ventures' Deeptech and Aerospace Acceleration Fund, Operators Studio and Chinmayi Muthyala. Cosmochute joins six startups from the inaugural Atoms X cohort, the early-stage investment programme Accel launched with Prosus earlier this year for space, climate and healthcare technologies.

Lunar mobility, built in Ahmedabad

Founded by Janhavi Gore, Amit Chowdhary and Dhruv Alok Sangal — three UK-returned rocket engineers who chose to build in India — Cosmochute is developing robotics and transportation infrastructure for commercial and scientific activity on the Moon. Its flagship LEAP platform is a modular lunar mobility system (a rover plus trailer with standardised payload bays) designed to transport and deploy equipment on the lunar surface, reducing the cost and mission-specific engineering that lunar missions currently demand. The startup is guided by Mylswamy Annadurai, the former programme director of Chandrayaan-1. The funds will accelerate platform development, expand the engineering team and advance commercial plans.

Why lunar infrastructure, why now

Dhruv Gupta, investor at Prosus Ventures, said the firm backs frontier technologies spanning specialised engineering and deep technology that unlock the next era of industry disruption. Gore frames the timing as India's “Space 3.0” moment: with sustainable access to orbit secured, the next prize is making in-space operations and the lunar surface commercially viable — a reusable infrastructure layer that multiple missions can build on.