“For every customer who knows how to analyse a hyperspectral image, there are 99 who don’t,” said Awais Ahmed, chief executive of Pixxel.

That is not an easy customer base for a satellite company. Especially one that spent its first five years learning to build satellites that could capture hyperspectral images, and must now convince customers to pay for what they see.

It has made a reasonably good start. Pixxel has raised nearly $96 million from investors including Google and Lightspeed—roughly one-sixth of the nearly $650 million raised by Indian spacetechs........

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