Spacetech startup Pixxel, which provides Earth imaging technology, said it has raised $25 million in a new funding round led by Toronto-based Radical Ventures.
Other investors in the round included Embedded Ventures’ cofounder Jordan Noone, Seraphim Space Investment, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, Sparta LLC, and Inventus Capital India.
The company said the new funding would help it expedite the production of its hyperspectral satellite constellation and offer newer artificial intelligence (AI)-powered insights.
Founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019, Pixxel is a hyperspectral imaging startup.
Hyperspectral imaging is a technology that can analyze a wide spectrum of light in an image, instead of just assigning primary colors (red, green, blue) to each pixel.
This leads to better data and insights from images of Earth from space.
Hyperspectral imaging has a number of applications, such as monitoring methane emissions and disease outbreaks across farmland.
The company is launching hyperspectral satellites as a part of Elon Musk-led SpaceX’s upcoming Transporter-4 mission in April.
These earth-imaging microsatellites will have higher resolution than existing ones, the company said.
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