Founded by former Bharat Forge Aerospace engineers, the company is betting that launch startups will buy propulsion systems rather than build them in-house.
Building a rocket engine in-house can take a launch company years and swallow most of its funding before it ever reaches orbit. Pune-based Thrustworks Dynetics is betting that companies would rather buy that piece than build it, positioning itself as a dedicated propulsion supplier to India’s growing private space industry.
The company was founded in 2023 by Manan Joshi, Kalyani Shinde, and Vinith Shenoy, who worked together on a rocket engine development project at Bharat Forge Aerospace.
A Modular Engine, Built to Move Fast
With their in-house developed liquid rocket engine platform ANYA, the company offers a menu-based approach, where a customer can choose an off-the-shelf option best fitted to their vehicle, instead of a completely custom design.
Thrustworks also has its own test infrastructure, including a mobile test bed, thus partly addressing the challenge of limited testing infrastructure in India, which has caused severe delays in the development of several projects. The company is also working on an integrated design, development, and test complex that will allow it to reduce the time taken to develop an engine from years to months.
A Supplier, Not a Competitor
Unlike other domestic rocket start-ups, Thrustworks does not plan to put its rockets in flight but instead aims to become an enabler for the wider aerospace industry. They have partnered with ISRO, IN-SPACe, Bharat Forge, Godrej Aerospace, and INOXCVA. “We position ourselves as enablers to the larger aerospace industry by providing customisable, scalable and modular liquid rocket engines,” says co-founder Manan Joshi.
Funding and What’s Next
The start-up has raised Rs 7 crore in a seed round led by Jamwant Ventures with participation from Piper Serica and SINE-IIT Bombay, where it is incubated. The funding will allow Thrustworks to scale its integrated facility, invest in further R&D, and create more testing infrastructure as it continues to make products that so far have no commercial market but fit in neatly with India’s opening up of its space economy.
