Accenture Ventures invests in satellite startup Pixxel

Awais Ahmed, CEO, Pixxel

IT consulting firm Accenture has invested in Bengaluru-based space-tech startup Pixxel which is building the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral imaging constellation of satellites.

These satellites can capture images at hundreds of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum and reveal key data about the health of our planet.

Terms of the investment made through Accenture Ventures were not disclosed.

The investment follows a $25 million Series A funding round Pixxel announced in March 2022 and the launch of its first satellite as part of SpaceX’s April Transporter-4 payload.

Pixxel’s first commercial-phase satellites are scheduled for launch in early 2023 along with the commercial sale of its data.

With six satellites flown in a sun-synchronous orbit around an altitude of 550 kilometre, Pixxel’s hyperspectral constellation will be able to cover any point on the globe every 48 hours, a release by Accenture said.

With even more satellites scheduled to launch in late 2023, Pixxel aims to achieve daily global coverage by early 2024.

The learnings from the data beamed down by this constellation will provide a global scale perspective of planetary-scale ecosystems and biospheres that will be used to create an artificial intelligence-informed analysis platform and a digital twin of the earth, the release added.

Through this investment, Pixxel also joined Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment programme focused on companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies.

“With so many aspects of our daily lives being increasingly impacted by climate and sustainability issues, we believe Pixxel’s Earth Health Monitoring can play a crucial role by enabling global organisations to detect potentially damaging events early on and help prevent them,” Mahesh Zurale, senior managing director, lead - advanced technology centres in India, Accenture, said in the release.

Pixxel CEO and co-founder Awais Ahmed said, “Accenture’s global reach and support will help accelerate our ambitious mission to create a health monitor for the earth and leverage our technology to address some of the most pressing issues facing our planet.”