In a first, Indian space tech company Pixxel gets $5 million

Started by 22-year-old Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, the startup plans to send its first earth-imaging satellite into space in November. GrowX Venture, Inventus Capital India, Stanford Angels and Ryan Johnson, who co-founded satellite imaging firm BlackBridge, have also participated in the fund-raise. The new capital would largely be allocated to get the satellites into space and also build its proprietary data platform. “Satellite has been manufactured and it’s being tested right now. We are working on a second satellite as well, which we plan to fly in the second half of next year,” said Ahmed. Ahmed said Pixxel has two Indian clients and eight more globally, across the US and Europe. Space tech, as a sector, has seen increased entrepreneurial action as demand for imaging-tech grows across sectors, and it gets cheaper to make and launch small satellites. There are now 15 to 20 startups in the space tech sector compared to just a handful a few years ago, industry executives said.