Pixxel

Pixxel is a developer of hyperspectral satellites designed to capture geospatial data of any location on the planet. The company develops micro-satellites, which run a sun-synchronous orbit that can be used to provide real-time data relevant for climate monitoring, crop yield prediction, urban planning, and disaster response. The satellites are deployed in a constellation and are able to serve clients in the aerospace and defense sectors.

Pixxel was founded in 2018 by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal and is headquartered in Bangalore, with additional offices in El Segundo, California. Pixxel is building satellites to develop a constellation for hyperspectral imaging, with efforts to launch six satellites in 2024 and a further eighteen satellites in 2025. This comes after Pixxel launched six satellites over 2022 and 2023, following test satellites to help prove Pixxel's technological capabilities were launched in 2021.

Pixxel's hyperspectral imaging satellites are designed to beam data in hundreds of wavelengths to detect problems invisible to other imaging satellites. The constellation is designed to provide global coverage at a revisit of every twenty-four hours. The constellation is composed of small satellites (smallsats), which offer lightweight packages that reduce production and launch costs while still being capable of carrying the necessary imaging equipment for high-resolution hyperspectral imaging.

Data captured from the satellites is then made accessible through Pixxel's data platform, which allows for near real-time insights for businesses and governments. The platform offers specialized machine learning algorithms for specific use cases, multi-dimensional visualization of satellite data across spatial and temporal dimensions, and end-to-end analytics and visualization capabilities.

Pixxel's hyperspectral imaging is developed for various industries, giving users the possibility of targeted monitoring, localized problem detection, and optimized solutions based on sector needs. Some of these sectors include agriculture, environment, government, energy, and mining.

For agriculture, this would allow users to monitor crop health, detect variations, distinguish and classify different crop species or weeds, receive field-level details to observe changes in crop health, forecast pest infestations, and identify crop diseases.

For the environment, Pixxel's technology can help users map and monitor forest cover, measure and reverse deforestation, measure climate risks such as flooding or wildfire, track natural capital utilization and ecological sustainability, detect hazardous material, and monitor water resources.

For governments, Pixxel's imaging can help detect chemical seepage across land classes, monitor inland water health, study railroad conditions at regional and national levels, monitor construction projects and site feasibility, and detect changes during natural disasters.

For the energy sector, Pixxel's imaging helps users detect chemical seepage across land classes, oil slicks, and hydrocarbons to establish the presence of new reserves; monitor the state of vegetation stress near pipelines; and quantify pollution and stress levels due to pipeline leakages.

For the mining sector, Pixxel's imagine solutions help users map vast tracts of land to narrow down search areas for mineral deposits, obtain mineralogical information about inaccessible targets, extract chemical and physical parameters of complex surfaces, see recent ground imagery of geological areas of interest, and map sand dunes for potential ore deposits.