Earth Observation
Pixxel
Pixxel (Bengaluru) is building a constellation of hyperspectral imaging satellites to provide high-resolution Earth observation data. Pixxel’s satellites (branded “Firefly” constellation) capture imagery in 250+ spectral bands, offering far more detail than conventional Earth-imaging sats. This enables applications like precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, climate change tracking, and urban planning with unprecedented clarity. Pixxel has launched three hyperspectral satellites in 2022-2023 and inked agreements to supply data to agencies like the Indian Air Force and NASA (Pixxel was selected for a 5-year contract under NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program).
2019
Year founded
$60 Million Series B
Latest Funding Round
~$95 million
Total Funding
~180
Employees
Firefly Constellation - Pixxel’s planned network of 24+ micro-satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, each carrying Pixxel’s proprietary hyperspectral camera. These provide 5 m spatial resolution across hundreds of spectral channels, detecting “hidden” patterns in crops, soil, water, minerals etc.
Pixxel also offers an AI-powered analytics platform called Aurora for clients to derive insights from the hyperspectral data (e.g. crop health indices, pollution monitoring). Initial services are already live with demo satellites (“Anand”, “Shakuntala”) delivering sample data.
Meet the Team
Founders
Awais Ahmed (CEO) and Kshitij Khandelwal (CTO), founded Pixxel in 2019 while at BITS Pilani. Awais (Forbes 30u30) leads strategy and Kshitij heads engineering; both were inspired by prior work in Hyperloop competitions to tackle Earth’s sustainability challenges via space.
Other Team Members
Pixxel’s leadership includes aerospace veteran Col. Raj Sukumaran as Head of Missions and former ISRO scientists as advisors. In 2024, Pixxel brought on Lt. Gen. A K Bhatt (Retd.)* on its board to guide engagement with government and defence sectors (strengthening its geo-intelligence offerings)
