Two Students Built India's First 5-Axis CNC in Their Dorm

When Kaushik Mudda and Navin Jain started building a five-axis CNC machine in their RV College of Engineering dorm room in 2013, industry veterans told them it was impossible. Only German and Japanese companies could manufacture such precise equipment, they said.

The electrical engineering students ignored that advice. What they thought would take one year stretched into four and a half years of solving complex problems across hardware, software, electronics, and precision mathematics.

Their persistence paid off with the Ethereal Halo, the world's first five-axis desktop CNC machine with integrated 3D printing capability. This breakthrough allowed engineers to produce geometrically complex components in one setup instead of shuttling parts between multiple machines.

At CES 2018 in Las Vegas, the Halo won the Best of Innovation Award. Ethereal Machines became the first Indian company in any category to receive the prestigious recognition.

But winning awards didn't immediately win over customers. Indian companies remained skeptical that a homegrown startup could deliver the precision manufacturing that defense contractors and aerospace firms demanded.

Mudda and Jain pivoted brilliantly. Instead of selling machines, they started using them to manufacture components for customers through a Machining-as-a-Service platform. Now clients simply upload CAD files, receive instant quotes, and get finished parts delivered with tolerances as precise as 0.002 millimeters.

The strategy worked. Today, Ethereal Machines counts HAL, BEL, and Collins Aerospace among its customers, manufacturing critical components from aluminum, titanium, steel, and high-performance plastics.

The Bengaluru-based company recently raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Peak XV Partners and Steadview Capital. The investment will help establish a 250,000-square-foot smart factory on the outskirts of Bengaluru, designed as both a manufacturing hub and precision engineering research center.

The Ripple Effect

Ethereal Machines represents something bigger than one company's success. The duo is developing India's first indigenous multi-axis CNC controller, filling a crucial technology gap in the country's industrial ecosystem.

Their journey from rejection to recognition demonstrates that India's deep-tech revolution isn't limited to elite IIT campuses. Sometimes breakthrough innovation starts with two determined students in a dorm room, tackling a problem everyone else considered impossible.

The Ministry of Education selected Ethereal Machines for Bharat Innovates 2026, where 120 Indian startups will showcase their innovations to global investors in Nice, France. It's fitting recognition for founders who built their company entirely through word of mouth with zero early marketing spend.

Forbes Asia named both founders to their 30 Under 30 list in 2019, but their real achievement runs deeper than accolades. They proved that cutting-edge manufacturing capability can be built in India, owned by Indians, and trusted by the world's most demanding customers.

What started as a college project nobody believed in has become a company showing India's industrial future.