BackPixxel closes seed funding round at $7.3 million
The company is expected to deploy the funds to launch its first set of hyperspectral imaging sensors into space before June, this year, as well as begin commercialisation of its software platform with clients in Europe and Africa
PremiumBenglauru: Spacetech startup, Pixxel, on Thursday announced the close of its $7.3 million seed round with new investors Omnivore and Techstars joining alongside previous investors Lightspeed Ventures, Blume Ventures, growX, and others.
The Bengaluru-based startup had already raised close to $5 million in August, last year from existing investors as a part of its ongoing seed round. It has closed the round now with an additional $2.3 million.
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The company is expected to deploy the funds from this round to launch its first set of hyperspectral imaging sensors into space before June, this year, as well as begin commercialisation of its software platform with clients in Europe and Africa. The funds will also be used to build manufacturing capabilities for its next set of constellation satellites, it plans to launch into space by 2023.
Pixxel plans to launch close to 30 satellites in space embedded with its imaging sensors, over the next two years, company founder and chief executive, Awais Ahmed told Mint.
Along with this, the company is already in talks to raise another $15 million - $30 million as part of its Series A round, in the next few months, after the launch of its first satellite in space.
“Our new funding enables us to build a health monitor for the planet through the most advanced hyperspectral small-satellites. These hyperspectral satellites will allow society to tackle many of humanity's most pressing issues and we believe they will become the holy grail of remote sensing - providing the best combination of spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions to date," said Ahmed.
Two-year old, Pixxel is a hyperspectral imaging startup, a technology which can analyse a wide spectrum of light in an image, instead of just assigning primary colors (red, green, blue) to each pixel. This allows richer data and more information to be derived from a particular image.
Pixxel's hyperspectral earth-imaging satellites will beam down 50x more information by capturing light reflected from Earth. This allows Pixxel to capture exact chemical signatures and offer much more accurate solutions to industries including agriculture, mining as well as oil and gas, while providing information around soil nutrition, minerals, and gas leaks.
Pixxel’s satellite will also be providing 24-hour global coverage, the company said.
Ahmed states that with the launch of its first satellite, before June this year, Pixxel will become the first commercial entity in the world to track hyperspectral data from space.
Pixxel has partnered with Indian space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the launch.
“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 agricultural productivity and make farming more remunerative for farmers. We are excited to partner with the Pixxel team on this journey," Mark Kahn, managing partner at Omnivore.
The company is already working with clients in the agriculture and urban monitoring segment and using drones to pilot its hyperspectral imaging technology, providing insights around soil health.
Through Pixxel’s software platform, clients can access hyperspectral images and run machine learning algorithms to gain further insights.
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