Pixxel, a local startup in the spacetech sector, has raised $36 million in a series B funding round from new investors like Google as well as reinvestors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, GrowX, Sparta, and Athera.
With this most recent round, Pixxel has received $71 million in venture capital. In March 2022, the spacetech startup received $25 million in series A funding.
In order to deliver actionable climate insights on a larger scale, Pixxel claims that the world’s first and highest-resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation will be built with the aid of new funding.
The money will also be used to create Aurora, a platform for AI-powered analytics being developed by the startup with the aim of making hyperspectral imagery analysis available to everyone.
Additionally, Pixxel is preparing to launch up to six satellites in 2024 and an additional 18 satellites by 2025.
In order to better understand and distinguish everything on the planet, Pixxel, a company founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, is developing hyperspectral imagery satellites. These satellites take a spectrum of light and divide it into hundreds of narrow spectral bands.
According to the startup, compared to current multispectral satellites in space, its hyperspectral constellation and advanced data analytics platform will offer up to 10 times as much information and 50 times higher resolution.
The first set of hyperspectral images from Pixxel’s satellites were released in February of this year, capturing fine details of the land and water features in places like the Krishna River Delta in India, the Palm Islands in Dubai, the Super Pit in Australia, the Saloum River Delta in Senegal, the Granny Smith Gold Mine in Australia, and Brockman in Australia.
Developed by the Bengaluru-based startup, a low-orbit imaging satellite was launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket in April 2022. Pixxel has already collaborated with a number of well-known space agencies, including NASA and ISRO. The third hyperspectral satellite from Pixxel, Anand, was launched by an ISRO rocket in November 2022.
Pixxel is the newest addition to a long list of tech startups attempting to break into the $9.6 billion space industry. However, a report claims that the Indian space industry only makes up between 2% and 3% of the global space economy. This creates a significant opportunity for startups with a focus on the private space sector, which have also received government support.
In addition, by 2025, the sector is projected to be worth $13 billion. India had more than 100 space-related startups as of December 2022.
Other domestic spacetech startups that have found success include Agnikul Cosmos, Skyroot Aerospace, Dhruva, Digantara, SatSure, and Vesta Space in addition to Pixxel.
In addition, it is Google’s first investment in a spacetech startup in India. Practo, CarDekho, Dunzo, DotPe, and ProgCap are just a few of the Indian startups in which the tech giant has invested over the years.
The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, shared his optimistic outlook on the Indian startup ecosystem in December 2022 and expressed hope for its future prospects. Additionally, he declared his intention to contribute $75 million to female-led startups in India.
