Pixxel-led consortium to use own funds for EO satellite constellation

Time of India

12 hours ago

Pixxel-led consortium that won the government contract to design, build, and operate India's first fully indigenous commercial Earth Observation (EO) satellite constellation bid at zero cost. This means the group will bear the entire Rs 1,200 crore investment while forgoing the government's public-private partnership (PPP) offer of up to Rs 350 crore in support.'The winning bid was zero. I cannot reveal the other bids, but this zero bid by the consortium is a very strong statement that the private sector sees immense opportunities in space,' IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka confirmed to ET.The Pixxel consortium, comprising SatSure, PierSight, and Dhruva Space, on Tuesday emerged as the lowest bidder (L1), ahead of two other technically qualified groups: Astra Microwave Products Bharat Electronics , Sisir Radar, and Spectragaze Systems; the second one was GalaxEye Space, with CoreEL.Goenka added that without an Indian constellation, the country would end up spending heavily on foreign data, and noted that the PPP model had drawn strong interest. Asked if IN-SPACe had estimated potential savings, he said it would depend on the constellation's revenue.'The lowest revenue estimate among the bidders was Rs 1,800 crore annually. If all of that would otherwise be imported, India could save about Rs 9,000 crore (~$1 billion) over five years,' he said.Pixxel founder Awais Ahmed said the partners are confident of recovering the investment within a few years of operations, given strong demand in India and global markets. 'Pixxel and our consortium members will pool in our own fundraised money to put into the project. At a future stage we could augment it with more investor funding or by bringing a strategic partner or debt financing as well,' he told ET.Pixxel has raised $95 million across 11 rounds so far. SatSure has raised $27.1 million in 11 rounds, Dhruva Space $16.1 million in seven rounds, and PierSight $6.6 million in two rounds, according to Tracxn.The consortium said its primary customer will be the Indian government. The group will also leverage its global customers globally in agriculture, oil and gas, mining and maritime sectors. "We'll sell to them as well and then other friendly governments,' Ahmed said.The first satellite will launch within two years, with the rest following over two-and-a-half years. Goenka stressed that all contractual obligations, local content norms, and penalties will still apply despite no government funding.The project will deploy 12 satellites over four years carrying optical, hyperspectral, multispectral and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors to deliver high-resolution data for agriculture, urban planning, disaster management, climate monitoring, and national security.