For Bengaluru-based space technology start-up Pixxel, it has been a dream come true as they raised around $5 million from Blume Ventures, growX ventures and Lightspeed India for the development of micro satellites and further expansion. It is one of the highest funding received by an Indian space technology start-up, after Team Indus. The company that started off in February 2019 has already developed its first microsatellite which is now expected to be launched in November 2020 by Russia, and the company is also aiming for another launch by mid of 2021 by using the launch services of SpaceX. In a conversation with THE WEEK, Awais Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Pixxel and a BITS Pilani alumni, talks about his aspirations, the road ahead for his start-up and how he wants to launch around 30 earth imaging microsatellites by 2023.
How did all of this start? Were you always inspired to do something in the space technology sector?
From my growing up years in Chikkamgaluru in Karnataka, I was fascinated by space technology. My father used to get me books related to space technology and discovery. When I was in college at BITS Pilani in Rajasthan, I was the founding team member and engineering lead of Hyperloop India, a team run by the students at the institute that got to demonstrate its own Hyperloop technology at the SpaceX headquarters in California in the United States. We were the finalists at Elon Musk’s Hyperloop challenge. More than a thousand student teams had participated in the challenge from across the world and only 24 of the best teams travelled to California where they demonstrated the Hyperloop technology and vied to be the fastest to travel the one-mile distance in a vacuum tube. At the competition, I personally got to meet Musk and I was greatly inspired by him. Later, I got to participate in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE which was based on using artificial intelligence to tackle some of humanity's pressing problems. There, I realised that satellite imagery could be used for detecting issues such as illegal mining and how agricultural production could be increased due to satellite imagery by detecting and predicting the trends in agriculture such as best time for sowing, the humidity levels etc. Even satellite imagery can be used in the oil and gas segment to detect gas leaks from pipes at remote locations and also for many other forestry applications.
Then, in 2019, Kshitij Khandelwal, the other co-founder, and I, while we were final year students, decided to build constellations of high-throughput earth imaging satellites to provide global imagery at a daily frequency to customers in a wide range of industries worldwide. Last year Pixxel was the only Asian participant selected to be a part of the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, a first of its kind space focused accelerator where our company worked with space industry specialists such as NASA JPL, US Air Force, Lockheed Martin and Maxar among others.
What are the launch plans for your satellites?
Our first satellite is booked to launch later this year, and a second one to be launched by middle of next year. The final plan is to deploy a total of 30 satellites by 2023 for our global constellation. Our first earth imaging microsatellite (weighing 15 kg) is awaiting launch in Russia in November this year. It was slated for launch in August, but got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The satellite will be launched by the Russian Soyuz rocket. This will be a proof of concept satellite and then we are also developing our second satellite which will weigh around 30 kilograms and will be launched by mid of 2021 by the SpaceX rocket in the United States. We had initially approached ISRO for the launch, but ISRO took a long time to get back. Moreover, in Russia the turnaround time was very fast and we did not want to take any chances as it is our first satellite.
How are you planning to capitalise on the imagery data that your satellites will generate?
We are expecting to capitalise on the imagery data from the beginning of 2021. We have already spoken to potential customers, especially in the US and Europe, who can utilise the data which our satellite will generate. In the long run, we may even get potential customers in India too.
Was it challenging to get funding as funding of this scale is difficult to get in the space technology field?
Initially it was difficult and we had multiple rounds of discussions with potential investors which started in November 2019. Initially, due to our young age (we both are 22 years) we had to face a 'no' from many investors. Then, after prolonged discussions with different investors, we were finally supposed to get $3.5 million in January 2020. However, in March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and then it took a long time to get the required funding. We sat on the discussion table again and finally got funding of $5 million. We plan to use this fund for the development of the 30 new satellites we have planned and to expand our team further from the current 25 full-time people and 10 consultants (who are mainly ex-ISRO scientists). We plan to raise more funds after an eighteen month time frame.
Will this round of funding bring in new people on the board of your firm?
This funding round was led by Blume ventures and growX ventures and Lightspeed India which are some of the prominent Indian venture capital firms. The round also included contributions from Inventus Capital India and other angel investors, including Stanford Angels and Ryan Johnson, a veteran in the earth imaging space. In conjunction with the funding, Ryan Johnson, who was previously the founder and CEO at Blackbridge, a Canadian earth-imaging company and former president at Planet Labs, which is one of the largest satellite imaging companies in the world, will be joining the board of directors at the company. He will bring in specialised expertise for our firm and will help and guide us from time to time.