BENGALURU (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google is joining a $36 million funding round for Pixxel, a Bengaluru-based satellite imaging startup. This is the first major investment in India’s space sector since the government’s privatization policy began in April.

Founded in 2019, Pixxel is building a constellation of satellites that can identify mineral deposits or crop productivity by analyzing the spectral signature of an image.

Miner Rio Tinto Ltd and Australian agricultural technology company DataFarming are customers, Pixxel said.

The startup has raised more than $71 million from investors including Accenture PLC. Pixxel did not specify what assessment was expressed in this.

Google said it invested in Pixxel through its India Digitalization Fund, which focuses on investing in startups based in India.

Founder and CEO Awais Ahmed said Pixxel is “the most valuable space technology company in India after this investment”.

According to Tracxn, it is rocket and launch vehicle provider Skyroot Aerospace, which tracks startups and is worth an estimated $163 million.

“We work with satellite data and Google does a lot of work in this area with agriculture and the environment,” Ahmed told Reuters. “You also have Google Earth? So it was a combination of those things that allowed them to see an advantage.”

Pixxel is among several private companies looking for a boost since India opened up the space sector, encouraging startups to offer broadband services like Starlink and energy applications like space tracking. Supply chains.

The government announced its space policy for the private sector in April.

This funding comes at a time when startups around the world are struggling to raise funds. Space startups in particular have come under pressure following the bankruptcy of Richard Branson’s launch vehicle Virgin Orbit.

Mr Ahmed said the funds would be used to expand its satellite network. Pixxel is preparing to launch six satellites next year, in addition to the three it already has, and is looking for more engineers for its analysis activities.

Mr Ahmed said he was inspired to start a space startup during a visit to Elon Musk’s SpaceX as part of a student competition to build a demonstration “Hyperloop” transport capsule.

Together with his co-founder Kshitij Khandelwal, he set out to develop an AI model that could use satellite data to predict crop yields, detect illegal mining and track natural disasters.

They started Pixxel when they realized that existing commercial satellite images weren’t detailed enough. Pixxel’s satellites capture and analyze a broad spectrum of light rather than assigning primary colors to each pixel, a technology known as hyperspectral imaging.