Indian Startup Pixxel Raises $5 Million in Seed Funding for Earth Imaging Constellation

Bengaluru-based Pixxel has raised $5 million in seed funding to launch a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites designed to provide global coverage every 24 hours, the company announced.

The funding will bolster Pixxel’s plan to launch its first satellite later this year aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket and to construct a second satellite.

“Pixxel’s satellites will collect information-rich data at a much higher quality than today’s satellites that will then be analyzed using Pixxel’s proprietary machine and deep learning models in order to detect, monitor and predict global problems and phenomena,” the company said.

Blume Ventures, growX ventures and Lightspeed India led the round. Inventus Capital India, Stanford Angels and Ryan Johnson contributed to the round.

Johnson, who was formerly president of Planet, previously founded and served as CEO of the Canadian Earth-imaging company Blackbridge. He will be joining Pixxel’s Board of Directors.

Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal founded Pixxel in 2019 while undergraduates at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.