What’s Next For Pixxel After The New Manufacturing Facility?

SpaceTech startup Pixxel on Monday inaugurated its first Spacecraft Manufacturing Facility in Bengaluru. The facility was inaugurated by S Somanath, Chairman at ISRO along with presence from other industry stakeholders and investors. 

Spanning 30,000 square feet, the new facility will reportedly serve as a central hub for all satellite manufacturing services. It boasts a comprehensive Spacecraft Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) facility, bringing together various stages of the production process under one roof. 

This integration will look to ensure a seamless journey from conceptualisation to launch, providing Pixxel the capability to design, manufacture, integrate and rigorously test its satellites for launch conditions before dispatch to the launch site.

At full capacity, the facility can currently handle more than 20 satellites simultaneously, allowing for a turnaround time of six months, thereby enabling a total capacity of manufacturing forty large satellites annually. The space in the facility is thoughtfully designed, featuring two state-of-the-art clean rooms conforming to ISO Class 7 and ISO Class 8 standards, ensuring the prevention of contaminants that could compromise satellite functionality during assembly and integration.

The facility also houses specialised labs for advanced camera integration, electronics R&D and electrical assembly. Complementing these are a mechanical workshop, a mission control room and an office space capable of accommodating over 200 employees. 

Plans For 2024 And Beyond

Led by Founder and CEO Awais Ahmed, Pixxel has plans to launch at least six satellites in 2024, with the possibility of more. These launches are scheduled for the middle and second half of the year. 

The ‘Firefly’ satellites, launching this year, are part of the company’s current satellite fleet. Each satellite in the Firefly constellation will have 500 times the capacity per day compared to a demo satellite, launched earlier by the company. With the Firefly constellation, Pixxel will be able to capture 500 times more imagery per day, covering around 2,40,000 square kilometers per satellite. This increased capacity will allow Pixxel to sell its imagery at scale.

Additionally, Pixxel is working on the Honeybee class of satellites, which will be larger (200 kg) and enhance satellite capabilities.

Pixxel’s goal for 2025 is to expand the satellite fleet by launching at least 18 more satellites, bringing the total to 24. This number is reportedly significant because with six satellites, Pixxel can achieve global coverage on a daily revisit basis, as per Ahmed. The constellation design allows the company to cover the entire landmass of the Earth every day with 24 satellites.

Facility Expansion: Pixxel has built the new facility with clean rooms and is capable of accommodating 200 people. During a media interaction, Ahmed said this new Bengaluru facility will enable Pixxel to build and launch up to 25 satellites at a single time in future and it will be used for at least a decade. Pixxel has reportedly invested in low-single-digit millions of dollars on this facility.

The clean rooms at the facility are designed to ensure a pristine environment, free from dust and other contaminants, to maintain the quality of the satellites. Pixxel plans to conduct satellite launches in India or the United States, depending on the specific requirements.

The company is also looking to build satellites that can be produced regularly, allowing for the hosting of different kinds of payloads. 

Ahmed said the facility intended to have a 25-satellite turnaround capacity at any single point in time and aims to turn them around every four months. In an ideal situation, this would translate to producing 75 satellites in a single year. 

The Pixxel founder and CEO also revealed that the company planned to expand to more facilities beyond the current one, but present goals would keep the company busy for the next year and a half or two.

‘Not Looking To Raise’

Founded in 2019, Pixxel is already a revenue-generating company. The three demo satellites have contributed to the company's revenue stream, as per Ahmed. He said that Pixxel is experiencing a high demand for its imagery. Approximately 50 per cent of the requests are from paying customers, indicating a strong market interest in Pixxel's satellite imagery.

Ahmed told media that the current requests for imagery can be categorised into three groups, including Paying Customers (50 per cent), Potential Paying Customers (30 per cent) and Internal Calibration and Validation (20 per cent). Pixxel is looking to achieve sustainability in its operations through revenue generated from selling imagery. The goal is to be able to sustain operations without the immediate need for additional investment.

“We are fairly well capitalised and just heads-down focused on building satellites. (We are) fully-funded for all these satellites and to demonstrate the launches this year as well as the next year.” - Awais Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pixxel

So far, Pixxel has secured funding amounting to USD 71 million. Noteworthy backers in its impressive investor lineup include industry giants such as Google, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures and Omnivore VC. The most recent funding milestone occurred in June 2023 when Pixxel concluded its Series B round, securing USD 36 million to fuel its ambitious ventures and advancements in the space technology sector. 

Analytics Platform

Pixxel is looking to launch its Aurora geospatial analytics platform in mid-June, which will look to enhance Earth observation data engagement. With its user-friendly design and accessibility, the offering try to deliver a seamless one-stop solution for remote sensing and geospatial analytics. It will be offered to anyone willing to pay for it.

Aurora will come with ready-to-deploy models covering tasks such as Cloud Gap Fill, Crop Stress and Land Use/Land Cover. It will look to redefine how users interact with geospatial data, making it efficient and adaptable for various applications.

Founder Awais Ahmed outlined the pricing model for Aurora during the discussion with media. The platform will operate on a subscription-plus-usage basis, where users pay a base subscription fee to access the features. Beyond the subscription, the pricing will be determined by the level of usage, considering factors such as the size of the model and the geographic area covered. Users will be charged credits based on the models they utilise, creating a system where costs align with customer usage. As customers use the platform more extensively, discounts would apply, making the pricing more cost-effective for increased usage. 

He projected that initially, in 2025, a significant portion, around 80 per cent, of their sales would come from data sales, with the remaining 20 per cent attributed to analytics. However, he anticipated a shift over the years, with analytics gaining prominence, reaching a projected ratio of 60 per cent data sales to 40 per cent analytics by 2028.

Business With Government 

Regarding the Business-to-Government (B2G) side of operations and collaboration with government entities, Ahmed mentioned that, initially, in 2025, the revenue split would be approximately 85 per cent from commercial sources and 15 per cent from government collaborations. 

Ahmed explained that governments typically take time to engage, needing evidence of the constellation's performance and scalability. However, he said there would be an increase in government procurement, reaching around 40 per cent by 2026. In the long term, he predicted a more balanced distribution, with governments globally procuring an amount comparable to the entire commercial market, roughly 50-60 per cent.

“The governments around the world will procure about equal to what the entire commercial market around the globe,” said Ahmed.

Hiring 

Over the past year, Pixxel’s team has expanded from around 75 or 80 people to approximately 180 to 185. This growth was driven by the scaling up of multiple missions, including Firefly, which required additional workforce. However, Ahmed said that the team size is not expected to surpass 225 or 230 over the next year. 

“We don't anticipate it (Pixxel’s headcount) going beyond 225 or 230 over the next year.” - Awais Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pixxel

The company has now established the necessary capabilities and any further missions can be handled efficiently by the existing team, said Ahmed. Therefore, the anticipated growth in personnel is relatively modest, with possibly a maximum of 40 or 50 more individuals expected to join the team in the coming year.