Spacetech Startup Pixxel Completes Seed Funding at $7.3 Million
Bengaluru and Los Angeles-based Pixxel has raised a collective total of $7.3 million (Rs 52.8 crore) in seed funding from new investors Techstars and Omnivore VC alongside existing investors Lightspeed Ventures, Blume Ventures, growX, Ryan Johnso, and others.The startup had raised $5 million in August 2020 and has raised an additional $2.3 million.
Pixxel is an Indian space-technology start-up that aims to put a constellation of 30 earth observation micro-satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit.It was founded by BITS Pilani graduates Awais Ahmed and KshitijKhandelwal in February 2019. Pixxel is also Asia's only spacetech startup to qualify for the 2019 TechstarsStartburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles.
Pixxel has also announced the launch of its newproduct "world's highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation" which captures and processes images at various wavelengths and provides 24-hour global coverage in higher quality resolution and lower cost than any existing competitors.Pixxesl's constellation of satellites can be used in the agriculture sector for crop maintenance, climate change-related monitoring, and urban planning.
In an interview with a leading portal, Awais Ahmed, Co-Founder, Pixxel, said, “We started looking at space as a sector for us to be able to work in, and we realized that what we wanted to do was to be able to enable people to take resources from space to use in space. That included asteroid mining, for example, and when we investigated that, we found hyperspectral imaging was the imaging tech that would enable us to map these asteroids as to whether they contain these metals or these minerals. So that knowledge sort of transferred to this more short-term problem that we were looking at solving.”
"We are pleased to back Pixxel and have high hopes for its hyperspectral technology, which should have transformative use cases across the entire agri-value chain. Predictive insights from Pixxel's satellite imagery will augment agriculture productivity and make farming more remunerative for farmers," said, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore
The company will use the funds raised for launching its first satellite and to speed up the development of the second satellite. The funds will also enable the startup to scale up its operations to meet the growing demand for high-quality remote sensing data through hyperspectral imaging.
Pixxel's first satellite was earlier scheduled to be launched in late 2020 on a Soyuz rocket but it later agreed with India's state-owned NSIL to use a PSLV rocket for launching it in early 2021.
The government has extended its support to the space tech sector. India's premier space agency ISRO has also welcomed startups through the program- Space Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development (SEED).
Pixxel is an Indian space-technology start-up that aims to put a constellation of 30 earth observation micro-satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit.It was founded by BITS Pilani graduates Awais Ahmed and KshitijKhandelwal in February 2019. Pixxel is also Asia's only spacetech startup to qualify for the 2019 TechstarsStartburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles.
Pixxel has also announced the launch of its newproduct "world's highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation" which captures and processes images at various wavelengths and provides 24-hour global coverage in higher quality resolution and lower cost than any existing competitors.Pixxesl's constellation of satellites can be used in the agriculture sector for crop maintenance, climate change-related monitoring, and urban planning.
In an interview with a leading portal, Awais Ahmed, Co-Founder, Pixxel, said, “We started looking at space as a sector for us to be able to work in, and we realized that what we wanted to do was to be able to enable people to take resources from space to use in space. That included asteroid mining, for example, and when we investigated that, we found hyperspectral imaging was the imaging tech that would enable us to map these asteroids as to whether they contain these metals or these minerals. So that knowledge sort of transferred to this more short-term problem that we were looking at solving.”
"We are pleased to back Pixxel and have high hopes for its hyperspectral technology, which should have transformative use cases across the entire agri-value chain. Predictive insights from Pixxel's satellite imagery will augment agriculture productivity and make farming more remunerative for farmers," said, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore
The company will use the funds raised for launching its first satellite and to speed up the development of the second satellite. The funds will also enable the startup to scale up its operations to meet the growing demand for high-quality remote sensing data through hyperspectral imaging.
Pixxel's first satellite was earlier scheduled to be launched in late 2020 on a Soyuz rocket but it later agreed with India's state-owned NSIL to use a PSLV rocket for launching it in early 2021.
The government has extended its support to the space tech sector. India's premier space agency ISRO has also welcomed startups through the program- Space Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development (SEED).
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