# Saurav Shroff

> Saurav Shroff is the co-founder and CEO of Starpath, a Hawthorne, California startup building industrial-scale infrastructure to mine and refine rocket propellant on the Moon and Mars. A UC Berkeley engineering grad and former SpaceX avionics engineer, he started Starpath in mid-2022 with the conviction that mining lunar water ice into liquid oxygen could cut the cost of deep-space transport by orders of magnitude. Starpath raised a $12M seed round in 2024, won NASA Break the Ice prize money, and in 2025 launched 'Starlight' space-rated solar panels priced roughly 90% below industry norms. Shroff has testified before Congress on space resource mining and frames his ambition bluntly: build the supply chain for a million-person city on Mars.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Starpath
- **Organizations:** Starpath (Starpath Robotics Inc.), SpaceX (former)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Starpath, a venture-backed space resource infrastructure company, Raised $12M seed (plus $2.5M pre-seed) for lunar propellant production, Won NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge prize money (~$800K cited)

## Career timeline

- **2022** — Graduated UC Berkeley and joined SpaceX as an avionics engineer (about four months)
- **2022** — Co-founded Starpath Robotics with Mihir Gondhalekar and Jason Zang
- **2023** — Starpath emerged from stealth in September with a lunar water-to-propellant architecture; raised $2.5M pre-seed from Hummingbird Ventures and Valhalla Ventures
- **2024** — Won NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge prize money; closed a $12M seed round co-led by 8VC and Fusion Fund
- **2025** — Testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight on space mining (February 25); launched 'Starlight' space-rated solar panels at ~90% below industry pricing (September)

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Starpath, a venture-backed space resource infrastructure company
- Raised $12M seed (plus $2.5M pre-seed) for lunar propellant production
- Won NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge prize money (~$800K cited)
- Testified before the U.S. Congress on space resource mining in 2025
- Launched 'Starlight' space-rated solar panels priced roughly 90% below industry standard

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — Launched 'Starlight' space-rated solar panels in the U.S. at roughly 90% below industry pricing, targeting production capacity that could exceed the rest of the world combined by 2026.
- **2025-02** — Testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations about space resource mining.

## Links

- Website: https://starpath.space
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-shroff
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/SauravShroff5

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/saurav-shroff
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-21