The Guild bets a fully reusable medium-lift rocket can cut launch costs to $500/kg

The Guild (formerly EtherealX) is developing Razor Crest Mk-1, a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle with a reusable upper stage, aimed at up to 24.8 tonnes to low Earth orbit and launch costs of $500–1,000 per kilogram.

Build the world's first fully reusable medium-lift rocket — both stages return — and push launch costs to $500-1,000/kg, a range only much larger vehicles have reached.

$5M seed (August 2024, led by YourNest); $20.5M Series A co-led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, announced January 2026 — $25.5M total.

Manu J Nair, Shubhayu Sardar and Prashanth Sharma founded Ethereal Exploration Guild, later branded EtherealX and then The Guild, in Bengaluru in 2022. Their thesis: launch prices stay high because rockets are expendable, and the cost per kilogram falls only when both stages of a vehicle return and fly again. Rather than chase SpaceX-scale superheavy lift, they sized the vehicle to the medium-lift segment, where commercial constellations and government missions create steady demand, and started with engine development.

The company designed Razor Crest Mk-1 around a proprietary full-flow segregated cooling cycle that lets the upper stage survive re-entry, paired with two engines it says it has built: Pegasus, an 80 kN reusable upper-stage engine tested at its BASE-001 site in Cuddalore, and Stallion, a 1.2 MN semi-cryogenic booster that powers a Technology Demonstrator Vehicle. After a $5M seed led by YourNest in August 2024, The Guild announced a $20.5M Series A in January 2026 co-led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital — with Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill Capital, Campus Fund and Riceberg Ventures participating — lifting its valuation 5.5x to $80.5M. TDK Ventures said its avionics and hardware expertise would help push the vehicle toward flight qualification and a $500-per-kilogram target, and the company announced plans to commission a second facility, BASE-002, at Space City in Andhra Pradesh.

As of late January 2026 The Guild has flown nothing: the next milestones are Technology Demonstrator Vehicle engine and stage tests and the commissioning of BASE-002. The bet that a $25M startup can make full reusability work at medium lift is therefore unproven until a stage actually returns.

Launch prices stay high because rockets are thrown away; the Guild's premise is that full reusability — upper stage included — cuts cost, not vehicle scale.

The medium-lift segment is where demand concentrates: Razor Crest Mk-1 targets 24.8 tonnes to LEO, sized for commercial constellations and government missions rather than superheavy lift.

India's ISRO-trained engineering and low-cost supply chain give a Bengaluru startup a structural cost advantage over Western small launchers chasing the same economics.

The engine-first path is credible but unproven: two engines built in 3.5 years is a claim, not a flight, and TDV stage tests plus BASE-002 are the next proof points.

Backers with strategic stakes — TDK Ventures for components, Accel and Prosus for Indian deep tech — validated the round, which lifted valuation 5.5x to $80.5M.

Reusability flips launch economics at any size: with both stages landing, a $25M startup can aim at the cost curve SpaceX spent a decade of capital reaching — if the engines fly.

As of 2026-01-28 The Guild (formerly EtherealX) is in build-and-test with $25.5M raised: a $5M seed in August 2024 and a $20.5M Series A co-led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital at an $80.5M valuation. It says it has built the Pegasus and Stallion engines and signed agreements with IN-SPACe, ISRO and commercial partners; next come Technology Demonstrator Vehicle tests and commissioning BASE-002 at Space City, Andhra Pradesh. No orbital flight has occurred, so the fully reusable medium-lift bet at $500-1,000/kg remains untested.