A Pixxel Perfect Vision: How India's Space Startup is Redefining Earth Observation
In 2019, when Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal pitched their vision for an Indian space startup, investors were skeptical. Two college students building satellites with no aerospace experience seemed implausible.
But today, their company Pixxel (Blume Fund III) has launched revolutionary hyperspectral satellites that helps Fortune 500 companies detect everything from crop diseases to underground oil leaks weeks before they're visible to the human eye.
The numbers tell a compelling growth story:
3 successful Firefly satellites launched in 2025, with 4 more planned this year
Multi-million-dollar contracts with major enterprise clients
90%+ gross margins once satellites are operational
Looking ahead, Pixxel is executing an ambitious four-point expansion strategy:
Launching 12 additional satellites in 2026, expanding their constellation to 18+ units
Scaling the Aurora platform to make Earth observation data accessible through natural language queries
Deepening enterprise partnerships across agriculture, mining, and environmental monitoring
Expanding their satellite manufacturing business for third-party clients
"Similar to how Google made the internet queryable, hopefully the Aurora platform will make the planet queryable," says Awais, outlining their vision to transform how organizations understand and manage Earth's resources.
Team Blume