Astrophil Aerospace: End-to-End Primary Validation of a Space Tech Bet
Validated an early-stage reusable launch vehicle company by going directly to an ISRO scientist and designing investor surveys for a mixed angel cohort.
Aditya Sharma
Investment Associate at ValleyNXT Ventures (FKA Ivy League Ventures)
From their time as
Investment Associate
ValleyNXT Ventures • 2024
Overview
Aditya took on the Astrophil Aerospace evaluation at a point where the company was at TRL 3, had no revenue pipeline until 2029 or 2030, and was operating in a sector that most of ValleyNXT's angel network had never backed. The core challenge was twofold: validate whether the technology was credible, and assess whether the investor base would actually commit capital to something this early.
The Story
Aditya took on the Astrophil Aerospace evaluation at a point where the company was at TRL 3, had no revenue pipeline until 2029 or 2030, and was operating in a sector that most of ValleyNXT's angel network had never backed. The core challenge was twofold: validate whether the technology was credible, and assess whether the investor base would actually commit capital to something this early.
On the technology side, he set up and led a direct call with a senior ISRO space scientist who had been involved in multiple missions. He briefed the scientist on the company, shared what the research had surfaced, flagged the areas where clarity was missing, and used the conversation to validate both the technology and the broader sectoral tailwinds. This was a structured expert interview designed to surface what desk research could not.
On the investor side, he designed a short-form survey to gauge appetite across a mixed angel cohort, some of whom understood new-age deep tech and some of whom came from traditional consumer or internet businesses. The survey was built to capture whether investors would consider the sector at all, not just this deal.
The results split roughly into three groups: clear yes, clear no, and undecided. For the undecided group, he and his manager held direct calls to walk through the thesis in plain business terms, translating technical concepts into language that spoke to returns, risk, and market timing rather than engineering specifications.
Separately, he built a round-by-round funding analysis for comparable companies, Agnikul and Skyroot, tracking valuation, capital raised, investor composition, and the IRR and MOIC that early-stage investors had achieved from seed through Series C. He structured this as scenario analysis rather than a raw data table, showing what a one-crore investment in 2018 would be worth at current valuations under different exit assumptions. This gave the investment committee a concrete reference point for return potential in a sector with no IPO exits yet.