TDK announced its corporate venture capital arm, TDK Ventures, will invest up to $5 million in the Series A round for Ethereal Exploration Guild, a Bengaluru-based space technology startup developing a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle called Razor Crest Mk-1.
The company is targeting a step-change in launch economics, aiming to reduce orbital transport costs to roughly $500–$1,000 per kilogram—pricing it says is needed to make a wide range of next-generation space applications economically viable and to enable “rocket cargo” as a service.
Ethereal Exploration Guild said its differentiation includes a reusable upper stage built around a proprietary engine feed cycle it calls the Full Flow Segregated Cooling Cycle (FFSCC), alongside in-house simulation tools and test infrastructure intended to improve reusability and shorten development cycles.
TDK Ventures positioned the deal as an investment in the medium-lift segment—generally defined in the announcement as payloads of about 2,000 to 50,000 kilograms—where the company argues demand is being driven by accelerating satellite constellation deployment and a widening gap in dedicated, cost-effective launch availability. The release cites projections that the broader space economy could reach $1.8 trillion by 2035 and that the medium-lift category could represent a $17.2 billion total addressable market by 2030.
The startup is pursuing “full reusability” by recovering both the booster and the upper stage, a design approach it said is necessary to reach ultra-low costs while maintaining high launch cadence. It also highlighted India’s regulatory environment, engineering talent, and supply chain economics as supportive factors for scaling in the category.
Ethereal Exploration Guild is led by founders Manu J. Nair, Shubhayu Sardar, and Prashanth Sharma, whose backgrounds include the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Manastu Space, and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. The company said it has already manufactured its 80 kN reusable upper-stage engine, Pegasus, and has signed collaboration agreements with IN-SPACe, ISRO, other national space agencies, and commercial market participants including satellite operators, launch aggregators, and launch ports.
TDK said the partnership is expected to create technical collaboration opportunities, with Ethereal Exploration Guild tapping TDK’s capabilities in sensing, passive components, magnetics, and power delivery to harden avionics and guidance systems for high-vibration and high-thermal flight environments. TDK, in turn, said it expects insights into next-generation launch and avionics architectures that can inform the development of mission-critical sensors, ruggedized components, and power-management technologies for space.
Existing investors in Ethereal Exploration Guild listed in the announcement include YourNest VC, Bluehill Capital, BIG Capital, Campus Fund, and Golden Sparrow VC. TDK Ventures, established in 2019 as a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK Corporation, invests in startups across materials science, energy and power, and adjacent innovation areas.
KEY QUOTES:
“TDK Ventures is thrilled to back the Guild in its goal to reshape the medium-lift space-launch industry. The company aligns seamlessly with our vision for transformative innovation, excelling in every critical metric for market leadership: slashing launch costs to $500 per kilogram to unlock vast market potential, pioneering novel technologies to streamline development, and harnessing India’s rich ISRO expertise and cost-efficient supply chain.”
Nicolas Sauvage, President, TDK Ventures
“Securing the backing of a strategic partner like TDK Ventures validates our vision to rearchitect today’s unipolar access to space into a truly multipolar frontier, and to catalyze civilizational progress. Their leadership in precision sensing, high-reliability passive components, and advanced power-delivery technologies brings critical materials and systems expertise that will support our push toward rapid development and early validation milestones for the Razor Crest Mk-1 platform.”
Manu J. Nair, CEO, Ethereal Exploration Guild
