Pixxel raises $25 mn from Radical Ventures, Blume Ventures, others

Spacetech platform Pixxel said it has racked up $25 million (around Rs 190 crore) in a Series A round led by Toronto-based venture capital firm Radical Ventures.

The fundraise also saw participation from Seraphim Space Investment, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, Sparta LLC and Inventus Capital India.

Pixxel plans to use the fresh money to boost production of the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation and to offer industry artificial intelligence-powered insights that discover, solve and predict climate issues at a fraction of traditional satellite costs.

“We’re excited to welcome these new investors as we work to address one of the most pressing issues facing our planet,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO of Pixxel.

“We’re committed to providing a critical tool in the fight against climate change, helping researchers and on-the-ground responders detect and develop effective strategies to combat imminent environmental threats. This funding will not only assist us with this goal but will help us improve our software capabilities so that organisations of all sizes can access and understand this data,” he added.

Founded in 2019 by Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, Pixxel’s platform offers advanced tools for agriculture, oil and gas, mining, and environmental agencies to analyse geospatial composites of the earth’s surface in real-time through a simple application programming interface (API).

The startup is based in Los Angeles and Bengaluru.

Pixxel’s clientele includes Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and SpaceX, among others.

Pixxel also claimed that it will be launching the first of its hyperspectral satellites as a part of SpaceX’s upcoming April Transporter-4 mission.

The startup added that these earth-imaging microsatellites have 50x higher resolution than existing multispectral counterparts and unlike drone or land-based multispectral sensors, it will be able to capture data at a global scale.

In 2021, Pixxel raised $2.3 million (around Rs 17 crore) from Omnivore and Techstars to close a seed round of funding at $7.3 million (approximately Rs 55 crore).

In the first tranche of the round, it raised $5 million (around Rs 38 crore) led by Blume Ventures, growX Ventures and Lightspeed India in August 2020. VC Circle