SpacePixxel (Pixxel)

Pixxel (registered as SpacePixxel Technologies Private Limited) is a Bengaluru-based space data company founded in 2019 by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, pioneering high-resolution hyperspectral Earth observation. The company builds an end-to-end stack — from satellite manufacturing and launch to cloud-based analytics — enabling customers to see what conventional RGB or multispectral satellites simply cannot detect.

The flagship Firefly constellation, first launched on SpaceX Transporter-12 in January 2025, delivers the world's highest-resolution commercial hyperspectral imagery at 5-metre GSD across 135–150+ spectral bands spanning 450–900 nm, with a 40-kilometre swath and daily revisit. This is six times sharper than any prior operational hyperspectral system, unlocking precision monitoring of agriculture, energy infrastructure, forests, oceans, and mineral deposits at scales and sensitivities invisible to traditional satellites.

Pixxel has raised approximately $95 million from Google, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital, and Aditya Birla Ventures. It operates the MegaPixxel spacecraft assembly and integration facility — over 30,000 sq ft in Bengaluru — and offers its cloud-native Earth observation platform Aurora to commercial and government customers globally. In 2024 Pixxel secured a contract with NASA, becoming the first Indian space startup to do so, and was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.