Space-tech startup Pixxel is preparing to scale up its satellite manufacturing capacity as demand for its space infrastructure grows, with plans to expand production from its current capacity of 20-25 satellites at a time to as many as 100 over the next one year.
“We have reached the production capacity with the current programs we have, both internally and externally,” co-founder and CEO Awais Ahmed told Fe in an interview. The business, launched about 14-16 months ago, is already contributing meaningfully alongside its core data and analytics verticals.
The upcoming facility, internally called “Gigapixxel” (the current facility is called Megapixxel), will initially allow parallel production of around 50 satellites, with room to double that to 100 through incremental expansion within the same footprint.
Pixxels’ funding
The push into manufacturing comes as the company is in talks to raise roughly $100 million in its upcoming Series C round, people aware of the matter told Fe. While Ahmed did not comment on a new round of funding, he added that the company is fairly well-funded from the previous rounds of financing. Pixxel had raised a Series B round of $60 million over two tranches in 2023 and 2024.
Pixxel’s primary business is to build and operate a constellation of hyperspectral satellites to capture high-resolution images of the Earth, and provide analytics to industries like agriculture, mining, and energy. A hyperspectral satellite captures images of Earth across hundreds of wavelengths, instead of just the usual red, green, and blue, which lets it detect details invisible to normal cameras such as chemical composition, crop health, mineral types, or gas leaks.
The company also manufactures satellites for governments and other organisations, and runs a software and analytics platform called Aurora that processes satellite data using AI and machine learning.
“The new capital, whenever and if we raise that, will be for expansion and acceleration,” he said, adding that besides launching more hyperspectral satellites, Pixxel will also have ultra-high resolution satellites that are optical in nature and radar-based satellites through partners.
After launching three demo satellites in 2021-22, Pixxel deployed six commercial satellites last year, which will allow it to scale revenue from global clients. Its customers span agriculture, mining, oil and gas, and government agencies, with nearly 98% of enterprise demand coming from international markets such as the US and Europe, where satellite data adoption is higher.
The expansion in manufacturing is for both internal and external demand. On one hand, Pixxel needs to scale its own satellite constellation to meet rising demand for hyperspectral data. On the other, it is increasingly being tapped to build space infrastructure in India, including contracts with Indian government agencies such as the Air Force.
However, scaling a deep-tech hardware business in India continues to be structurally challenging. While early-stage funding has improved, growth and late-stage capital remains limited domestically, Ahmed said, pushing companies to rely on global investors. Pixxel’s investor base includes US-based Glade Brook Capital, Google, Accenture, Lightspeed India and Blume Ventures, among others.
The company has so far raised $95.7 million across nine rounds, as per Tracxn data. In FY25, it reported revenue of Rs 39.3 crore from Rs 30.6 crore in the year before, while net loss widened to Rs 30.8 crore from Rs 20.4 crore in FY24. Even though the company began in 2019, FY26 will be its first year of full-scale commercial operations.