Perils in space funding: India's first private Moon mission aborted

Start-ups in space sector say mobilising funds is the biggest barrier in India as investors are hesitant to support such high-risk ventures

The aborted plan of Team Indus to land a spacecraft and rover on the moon by March after it failed to mobilise funds to hire a rocket from Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) shows that investors are still wary of funding space start-ups in the country.

While Team Indus had backing from Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Tata Group doyen Ratan Tata and Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal, the Bengaluru-start-up could not even muster half of the Rs 4.5 billion it required for the mission to the moon. 

Team Indus — a finalist for the Google XPrize Lunar Prize — had to