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and disease detection in crops forest cover; measur- Source: Pixxel
and pollution of air, land, and ing and reversing de-
water bodies. “We realized that forestation; measuring ers that have the need for sat- Space is an
most satellite data that is avail- climate risks such as ellite imagery across multiple expensive
able today is expensive, infre- flooding, famine and geographies. “I think where we field and
quent, and does not allow you wildfire; tracking nat- stand out the most is in terms requires
to go beyond a certain point in ural capital utilization of accessibility and the speed access to
a quest to finding solutions to and impact on future with which we want to de- funds. As of
these issues. If it is available for economic and eco- ploy our solutions. We intend now, Pixxel
free or for very cheap, it’s not logical sustainability; to make the data through our has raised
good enough to even start look- detecting hazardous hyperspectral imagery easily around $7.3
ing at these solutions. This is material and taking accessible and put to use in an million in
where we felt that there was an timely measures to easy manner. Finally, the grow- funding.
opportunity for Pixxel to step curb the danger; and ing impetus by the Govern- Last year, it
in and build this technology,” monitoring water re- ment in the space tech sector is raised the
he reveals. sources and managing enabling private players like us largest seed
ANAND is Pixxel’s first tech- in a sustainable manner. to enter the market and enable funding of $5
nology demonstrator mission “For the Government, we see a change. We are quite hopeful million from
and flies up with a visible and potential of the satellite imaging that this is the turning point for established
near-infrared hyperspectral in military resources and troop private space in India. Liberal- institutional
camera. The idea behind the movement to aid with relief ef- ized regulation will play a key venture
mission is to validate the start- forts, detect chemical seepages role in enabling innovation and capital firms
up’s satellite and camera tech- across land classes, monitor in- allow Indian startups to com- Lightspeed
nology and get sample image land waterway health, rail-road pete globally,” he adds. India and
data that it can use to validate conditions at regional and na- The regulatory regime in India Blume
different use cases for hyper- tional levels,” he shares. has also cleared up consider- Ventures.
spectral imagery. ably since the announcement
Overcoming hurdles of IN-SPACe, and Pixxel has
HSI to benefit most sectors Space is an expensive field and been a beneficiary of this as
“The hyperspectral imaging that requires access to funds. As of well when ISRO’s testing facil-
we have built at Pixxel will be ac- now, Pixxel has raised around ities at URSC opened up to it
curate, precise and in real-time, $7.3 million in funding. Last for testing the ANAND satel-
giving the advantage of targeted year, it raised the largest seed lite, shares Khandelwal. “ISRO
monitoring, localized problem funding of $5 million from es- and the team at IN-SPACe, in
detection, and hyper optimized tablished institutional venture particular, have been extreme-
solutions in every sector global- capital firms Lightspeed In- ly supportive and swift in the
ly,” claims Khandelwal. dia and Blume Ventures. “The way they have done things,
To help the environment thrive funding has helped us to fur- and with the new SatCom and
with sustainable practices, Pixx- ther execute our vision of put- Remote Sensing policy drafts
el’s hyperspectral imaging can ting up the constellation of 30 that were out, we are optimistic
help in mapping and monitoring satellites in space by 2023. We about the future,” he says, con-
are looking forward to launch- cluding on a positive note.
Source: Pixxel ing the ANAND satellite by the
end of this year, and are utiliz-
ing the funds that we raised to
further expedite the process of
R&D for our future missions.
We are also upgrading our in-
frastructure and have recently
inaugurated our facility in Ban-
galore,” shares Khandelwal.
Pixxel is one of the first compa-
nies in the world that is looking
at building commercial hyper-
spectral satellites. Since 2019, it
has been working with custom-
www.mmindia.co.in | 45May-June 2021
