#54: Building A Health Guard For the Planet Using Hyperspectral Imagery - Awais Ahmed, Pixxel

Today, I am speaking with Awais Ahmed, co-founder and CEO of Pixxel, a space tech startup founded in India, with offices in the US, that is launching a constellation of Earth observation satellites collecting hyperspectral imagery.

I have tracked Pixxel with two lenses over the years - one with my consultant hat analysing how this new startup will position itself and grow in the EO market and second, with my India hat looking at how Awais and his team in India are building India's first commercial EO satellite company.

In this episode, we discuss Pixxel's founding journey, what they bring to the EO market, their strategy, how easy it is to use hyperspectral data, early adopters and key use cases, the investment from Accenture, how to grow the adoption of EO and more.

• Pixxel's Website: https://pixxel.space/
• Awais' Twitter: https://twitter.com/awaisahmedna

[Thanks to Pixxel for sponsoring this episode]

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[ 01:11 ] Awais' story

[ 07:54 ] Starting a space-tech company in India

[ 12:09 ] What is Pixxel bringing to the table?

[ 19:38 ] How easy it is use to hyperspectral data?

[ 23:44 ] Launch milestones

[ 24:49 ] Early adopters and key use cases

[ 29:00 ] Rio Tinto (Mining Corporation) and their use case with hyperspectral data

[ 32:15 ] Satellite-as-a-service model and Pixxel's space segment

[ 35:38 ] Investment from Accenture

[ 38:27 ] State of EO, consolidation and outlook

[ 43:40 ] Lack of focus on data quality

[ 46:51 ] Adoption of EO in India

[ 51:10 ] Worries about the state of space tech

[ 53:06 ] Wrap-up

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