By Chetan Thathoo
Pixxel, a spacetech business, has raised $25 million in a Series A fundraising round led by Canada’s Radical Ventures.
Additionally, individual investors such as Jordan Noone and institutional investors such as Seraphim Space Investment, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, Sparta, and Inventus Capital India participated in the round.
Pixxel will use the funding to scale up the production of its hyperspectral satellite constellation. The spacetech business intends to use the investment to commoditize its AI-powered insights at market-competitive prices.
Awais Ahmed, Pixxel’s CEO, told Inc42 that the business will also utilize the funds to launch six additional satellites as part of its commercial expansion. Additionally, Pixxel will use the cash injection to develop a service platform for successfully utilizing the imagery’s data.
Essentially, high-resolution images can give a goldmine of remote sensing data that can be used for a variety of applications, including land surveying and monitoring climate change in a specific location. This data can then be analyzed, revealing a plethora of alternatives that can occasionally assist in reversing specific geographical changes.
“This financing will enable us to enhance our software capabilities so that organizations of all sizes can access and analyze this data,” Ahmed continued.
From the Ground Up
Pixxel was founded in 2019 by BITS Pilani alumni Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal during their final year of undergraduate studies.
According to Pixxel, the company is developing a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites to enable its clients to detect, monitor, and forecast global events in real-time. The data collected by Pixxel’s satellites will be used to generate “actionable insights” in a variety of fields, including agriculture, oil and gas, and climate change monitoring.
Pixxel raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding in June 2019 from Techstars, growX ventures, and others. The startup then raised a sizable initial round of $7.3 million from venture capital firms such as Blume Ventures, growX Ventures, and Lightspeed India. The spacetech business has raised a total of $33 million in investment.
A Universe Of Insights
Pixxel has developed a proprietary Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning platform for analyzing satellite data. According to Ahmed, satellite imagery serves as the foundation for the startup’s primary hallmark libraries. Notably, the business deployed drones to collect data and fine-tune its AI model prior to launching the satellite. Additionally, the firm takes advantage of many of its large enterprise clients’ in-house data capabilities.
Client data enables the homegrown firm to collect and calibrate data for improved insights on its AI platform.
Ahmed told Inc42 that the startup has achieved near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near-near- Additionally, he stated that the company was vying for even greater data accuracy in the coming years.
The startup’s primary claim to fame is its pictures with a five-meter resolution. With six satellites now under development, Pixxel will be able to offer coverage over a large portion of the Earth every 48 hours.
The startup primarily operates in the hyperspectral imaging space, which enables the greater study of the earth’s surface since it captures a wider range of light and thus produces a more detailed image suitable for data analysis.
To put it into perspective, standard cameras capture only three colour values: Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) and their combinations. Pixxel, on the other hand, gathers multispectral pictures by recording hundreds of slices of the light spectrum.
Pixxel made big strides last year when it launched its first hyper spectral satellite and just recovered images from it.
The satellite was launched in collaboration with two other spacetech businesses – NanoAvionics and Dragonfly Aerospace – in order to monitor the health of a Mexican farmland’s crops.
Meanwhile, Pixxel has revealed details about its upcoming debut. Pixxel’s hyperspectral satellite will be launched into space shortly through SpaceX’s forthcoming April Transporter-4 mission.
Making The Monetary Gains
The firm operates on a recurring subscription model and charges consumers on a per-square-kilometer or per-image basis. Additionally, it licenses picture data and analysis from its satellites for customer use.
Additionally, the startup focuses on two revenue-generating strategies: partnering with government entities and engaging with private businesses.
Pixxel assists government entities in generating data on their constituents and using it to categorize places and identify solutions to problems facing specific areas.
On the other side, it collaborates with major corporations such as Anglo-Australian mining conglomerate Rio Tinto. According to CEO Ahmed, the alliance facilitated the mapping of Rio Tinto’s mining regions and the streamlining of its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements.
Additionally, the startup collaborates with businesses in a variety of other industries, including Oil and Gas, Fertilisers, and others. When pressed for further clients’ names, Ahmed cited the need to protect proprietary company data as a basis for not disclosing them.
Additionally, the spacetech startup collaborates with analytics firms such as SatSure in India to improve its operations.
Pixxel is headquartered in Bengaluru, India, and in California (Palo Alto). Ahmed told Inc42 that Bengaluru serves as the startup’s ‘tech-office,’ with all R&D and testing conducted in India. He noted that the US served as the startup’s ‘commercial hub’ in order to recruit additional worldwide clients.
Ahmed also stated in an interview with Inc42 that half of the startup’s clients were headquartered in the United States, with another 30-40 percent based in the European Union. He noted that the remaining 10% were from the Asia-Pacific region.
The Way Forward
Awais Ahmed also emphasized the startup’s future prospects. He stated that Pixxel was initially focused on satellite launch and would thereafter aim to expand its constellation to more than 30 satellites. Ahmed highlighted the startup’s long-term goals, stating that it was striving for collaborations with various space agencies around the world to investigate the solar system.
Additionally, the startup appears to be stymied by a few obstacles. While regulatory concerns appear to be secondary, the startup appears to be more worried about supply chain concerns. This has resulted in delayed part deliveries, which has hampered business planning and increased costs. Supply chain challenges have been exacerbated significantly by the COVID-19 epidemic, which severed supply chain links and wrought havoc throughout the world.
Notably, the company confronts severe competition in the space from primarily US-based players such as HySpecIQ and Orbital Sidekick. In answer to a question regarding this, Ahmed stated that the startup was well-positioned to compete with these players, noting that Pixxel’s 5-meter resolution imaging resulted in higher-quality data.
Additionally, Ahmed stated that manufacturing in India offered Pixxel a cost advantage that its worldwide competitors did not appear to possess. He also emphasized that Pixxel was considerably ahead of its competition in terms of satellite deployment, giving it a significant advantage over other domain players.
Under the present administration, the space sector is undergoing significant liberalization. This was evident in the government’s Budget 2022 allocation of INR 13.7K Cr, an increase of INR 1,058 Cr over the revised projection.
According to Inc42 study, India has more than 120 active spacetech businesses. India’s space entrepreneurs are rising to the occasion, from rocket technology ventures such as Bellatrix to satellite manufacturers such as Dhruva Space.
Additionally, an Inc42 analysis projects that the commercial spacetechnology market would increase to $77 billion by 2030.
Source: Inc42
