BusinessWire India
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 4: Serendipity Space, a pioneering space-tech company developing microgravity-based pharmaceutical manufacturing solutions, has raised its pre-seed round from Campus Fund. The investment will accelerate the company's mission to transform drug development by leveraging space-based crystallization technology through its proprietary satellite platform and autonomous pharmaceutical crystallization module called 'Alchemy'.
Co-founded by Antariksh Parichha (CEO) - M.S. Applied Physics from Technical University of Munich, Germany (2024), Jivitesh Debata (CTO) - M.S. Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA (2023), and Dr. Monica Ekal (Chief of Space Systems) - Ph.D. in Space Robotics from Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal (2023) with extensive experience as a research scientist at German Aerospace Center and visiting scholar at NASA, Serendipity Space addresses one of the pharmaceutical industry's biggest bottlenecks - the inability to produce high-quality protein and drug crystals on Earth due to gravity-induced defects. The team combines deep space systems engineering expertise with pharmaceutical development experience and Antariksh's personal drive inspired by witnessing how microgravity-produced drugs like Keytruda transformed cancer treatment.
"Serendipity Space represents the convergence of two critical frontiers - space technology and pharmaceutical innovation," said Richa Bajpai, Founder & CEO of Campus Fund. "We're backing a team that's not just pushing the boundaries of what's possible in space manufacturing, but solving real problems in drug development that could accelerate life-saving treatments to market."
Since inception, the company has built and tested multiple functional pharmaceutical modules, including two crystallization modules and one formulation module. Their ground-based validation of the autonomous pharmaceutical module with proteins and small molecules has demonstrated laboratory-grade crystallization quality.
Space-based pharmaceutical production can yield an average net present value (NPV) of $1.2 billion per novel drug for a pharmaceutical company and the broader in-space manufacturing market is projected to surpass $10 billion by 2030, driven by the unique advantages provided by the microgravity environment. In space, the absence of sedimentation, buoyancy, and convection currents enables the production of larger, more uniform protein and drug crystals with enhanced stability and bioavailability - critical factors that can reduce drug development timelines that usually takes 12-15 years.
"Our vision is to make space the new frontier for drug discovery and pharmaceutical manufacturing," said Antariksh Parichha, Co-founder and CEO. "With Campus Fund's backing, we're not just building satellites - we're creating the infrastructure that will enable the next generation of breakthrough medicines. Our reusable satellites with re-entry capability will make space-based manufacturing commercially viable."
With the funding, Serendipity Space plans to execute technical demonstrations that shall validate the core subsystems required to deploy this technology as an end to end service for pharmaceutical companies. Serendipity Space joins Campus Fund's growing portfolio of deep-tech ventures reimagining India's position in cutting-edge industries, from space technology to advanced manufacturing, driven by student entrepreneurs building the future of innovation.
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