Google leads $36 mn round in Pixxel in India spacetech bet

With the latest Series B round, Pixxel has raised $68.3 million in total funding so far

- Shouvik Das

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has led a $36 million round of funding in Bengaluru-based spacetech startup, Pixxel in its maiden investment in India’s spacetech sector.

This follows Google chief executive Sundar Pichai saying at the Google For India 2022 event last December that the company will invest $300 million in homegrown startups.

With the latest Series B round, Pixxel has raised $68.3 million in total funding so far, including a $25 million Series A round in March 2022, and a $7.3 million seed round the year earlier. Accenture, the world’s largest technology services company, also made a strategic investment in Pixxel in August 2022, the size of which wasn’t disclosed.

The size of Google’s investment couldn’t be ascertained. Google didn’t respond to an email query.

Pixxel was the first Indian spacetech startup to raise funds from a global investor when Canada’s Radical Ventures led its Series A round.

Google’s investment is the third instance of an overseas entity investing in a homegrown space startup after Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace raised $50.5 million from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC in September last year.