Global tech giant Google has infused $36 million in the Bengaluru-based Indian space tech start-up Pixxel. With this investment, the Sundar Pichai-led tech company has marked its foray into the Indian space tech sector. 

The development came nearly six months after Sundar Pichai said that Google For India would invest $300 million in multiple homegrown start-ups. 

Founded in 2019 by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, Pixxel is working on building a cluster of satellites that will be able to trace mineral deposits by analysing the spectral signature of any image. 

The company has raised over $68.3 million in multiple rounds of funding. Prior to this Series B round, it bagged $25 million in its Series A round in March 2022. It also raised $7.3 million in its seed round. Last year, It attracted investment from Accenture. 

In an interview with Mint, Ahmed said that the funding will help the company to manage its runway for the next three years. 

“The first batch of our commercial satellites, through which we will begin offering full-fledged satellite-based imagery and data analytics services to paying customers, is in the final development stages. We expect to be ready with the satellites by the end of this year, and conduct a launch of six of these satellites as part of our hyperspectral imagery constellation by March next year. This will help us commence our services officially by the first half of next year," he added. 

The co-founders also noted that the company has more than 50 commercial contracts from government bodies, forestry, oil and gas and climate monetary agencies.