Bengaluru space-tech startup Pixxel has closed a $100M Series C co-led by Temasek and Seraphim Space, pushing its total funding past $195M and marking the largest round an Indian space company has banked to date.
New investors 360 ONE Asset and IMM Investment joined the round alongside existing backers Radical Ventures and growX Ventures. Media estimates have pegged Pixxel’s post-money valuation in the $450M to $500M range, though the company has not confirmed a figure.
Founders Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal built Pixxel around hyperspectral imaging, where satellites capture hundreds of narrow spectral bands to spot chemical and physical signatures invisible to ordinary cameras. The fresh capital funds a broader push: the next-generation Honeybee constellation, high-resolution optical satellites, the Aurora Earth-intelligence software platform, sovereign space systems and expanded manufacturing under its Gigapixxel unit.
Two years of operations have put six Firefly satellites in orbit for Pixxel, and its customer list now includes NASA, the US National Reconnaissance Office and India’s Ministry of Defence via iDEX challenge wins. The startup also leads a planned 12-satellite public-private Earth observation constellation under the IN-SPACe framework. Earlier backers of its prior $95M haul include Google, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures and Glade Brook Partners.
The round lands weeks after Skyroot Aerospace became India’s first space-tech unicorn, underscoring a surge of investor interest in the country’s private space sector as governments seek independent sensing and intelligence capabilities.
