FigureAsia 35 Under 35 · Business
Pawan Chandana
Age 34 · Commercial launch systems and aerospace manufacturing · India
Opened a private route into India's launch economy and carried it from demonstration to orbital hardware
- Approximate age at the edition boundary
- 34
- Field
- Business
- Country or region
- India
- FigureAsia U35 Assessment
- 86.5 / 100
Profile
Career and operating record
Pawan Chandana left India's space agency to co-found Skyroot Aerospace in 2018, before the country had a settled framework for private launch companies. The bet required more than rocket design: suppliers, test access, regulation and customer confidence all had to be assembled around a new commercial category.
Skyroot's Vikram-S reached space in 2022, validating technologies later carried into the much larger Vikram-1. By July 2026 the orbital vehicle was fully stacked at Satish Dhawan Space Centre for a customer mission. The company had also raised US$60 million at a reported US$1.1 billion valuation. Capital is context; Chandana's case rests on the factory, flight hardware and launch organisation already built.
FigureAsia selection
Why Pawan Chandana is on the list
Chandana is selected because he helped convert a policy opening into industrial capacity. Skyroot has designed propulsion, composite structures, avionics and a launch service rather than operating only as a software intermediary or prospective broker.
Orbital success remained to be proved at the research cut-off, and the profile does not award a future launch. The completed record—a private Indian rocket reaching space, an orbital vehicle on the pad and a manufacturing organisation capable of supporting it—is already a consequential business achievement.
Verified work
The 2025–26 business record
Private launch breakthrough
Led Skyroot when Vikram-S became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach space.
Orbital vehicle
Advanced Vikram-1 through manufacturing and integration to a fully stacked launch vehicle at Sriharikota.
Industrial scale
Expanded Skyroot's Hyderabad manufacturing base and raised new capital at a reported unicorn valuation to support commercial launch operations.
Market context
The work in its market
Launch companies are judged by hardware, safety and repeatability, not by valuation. Chandana's distinction is the movement from India's first private suborbital flight to an orbital campaign supported by domestic manufacturing and public launch infrastructure.
FigureAsia U35 Assessment
Assessment breakdown
86.5out of 100
Operating execution
25.9 / 30
Led Skyroot when Vikram-S became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach space. The result is completed and operational rather than announced.
Commercial consequence
21.6 / 25
The record produced measurable consequence in commercial launch systems and aerospace manufacturing, with company-wide outcomes kept distinct from personal credit.
Individual agency
17.3 / 20
As Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pawan Chandana held an identifiable decision-making and execution remit.
Industry influence
13.0 / 15
Opened a private route into India's launch economy and carried it from demonstration to orbital hardware. The work established a reference point beyond one financing or publicity cycle.
Asian and global relevance
8.7 / 10
An Indian engineer and former ISRO scientist building commercial launch capacity from Hyderabad. The work also carries consequence beyond one immediate market.