# Pixxel

Canonical page: https://technooptimist.io/companies/pixxel
Indian-American company that builds and runs hyperspectral imaging satellites, which split light into well over 100 colours to identify crops, minerals and pollution from orbit. Offices in Bengaluru and the US.

## In brief

- Runs six Firefly hyperspectral satellites (2025), each seeing 135+ colour bands at about 5 m.
- Raised a $100M Series C in Sept 2026 (Temasek, Seraphim), $195M in total since 2019.
- Next: Honeybee satellites adding shortwave infrared from 2027; leads India's private EO constellation consortium.

## Facts

- Founded: 2019
- Headquarters: IN, US
- Status: private
- Raised: $100M
- Website: https://pixxel.space
- Frontiers: [Spaceflight](https://technooptimist.io/spaceflight.md) (Earth observation)

## Programs

- [Firefly constellation](https://technooptimist.io/spaceflight/fireflies.md) (Spaceflight): Deploy; next: Launch 3–6 more Firefly satellites. Six Fireflies operating since Aug 2025; 3–6 more planned, Honeybees from 2027.

## Technical approach

- **Hyperspectral: Hundreds of colours, not three**: Instead of red, green and blue, each pixel is split into 135+ narrow bands, enough to tell materials apart by their spectral fingerprint.
- **Small sats: Constellation of small satellites**: Several small satellites in sun-synchronous orbit share the work, so the same place can be revisited every few days.
- **Aurora: Software that reads the spectra**: Its Aurora platform turns raw spectra into maps and alerts, using AI to help government users find what matters.

## Open problems

- **Daily coverage needs more satellites** (active research): Six satellites give revisits of a few days; Pixxel plans 3–6 more Fireflies and 12 Honeybees.
- **Enormous data per image** (active research): Each scene holds over a hundred images in one; only a selection of bands is sent down per capture.

## Upcoming

- **2027**: First Honeybee satellite launch (Firefly constellation)

## Latest updates

- **8 Sep 2026**: Pixxel raises $100M Series C led by Temasek and Seraphim to build Honeybee satellites. Pixxel raised $100 million, taking its total to $195 million since its 2019 founding. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/pixxel-raises-100m-series-c-led-by-temasek-and-seraphim-to-build-f1732cc3.md) · [original source](https://payloadspace.com/pixxel-raises-100m-series-c-to-fund-next-gen-sats/))
- **27 Aug 2025**: Pixxel launches three more Fireflies, completing a six-satellite hyperspectral fleet. Three more Firefly satellites flew on SpaceX's NAOS mission, bringing Pixxel's operational fleet to six. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/pixxel-launches-three-more-fireflies-completing-a-six-satellite-7c3ce493.md) · [original source](https://pixxel.space/news/pixxel-launches-three-more-fireflies-with-spacex-paving-the-way-for-planetary-scale-hyperspectral-imaging))
- **14 Jan 2025**: Pixxel launches its first three Firefly hyperspectral satellites on SpaceX Transporter-12. Bengaluru-based Pixxel launched its first three commercial Fireflies from Vandenberg, calling them the world's highest-resolution hyperspectral constellation and India's first private commercial constellation. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/pixxel-launches-its-first-three-firefly-hyperspectral-satellites-on-01f72a06.md) · [original source](https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/14/google-backed-pixxel-launches-indias-first-private-satellite-constellation))

## Funding

| Date | Round | Amount | Post-money | Leads |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sep 2026 | Series C | $100M |   | Temasek, Seraphim Space |

## Partners, customers and investors

- National Reconnaissance Office (customer): Commercial Systems Program Office contract (2023), more awards in May 2026.
- NASA (customer): Selected for the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program (2024).
- Government of India (customer): Picked Pixxel's consortium in Jan 2026 to build India's first private EO constellation.
- Google (investor): Early investor.
- Temasek (investor): Co-led the $100M Series C (2026).
- SpaceX (supplier): Launched all six Fireflies (Transporter-12 and NAOS).

## People

- Awais Ahmed, Co-founder and CEO
- Kshitij Khandelwal, Co-founder and CTO

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