Awais Ahmed

Awais Ahmed is the Founder and CEO of Pixxel, a space data company and spacecraft manufacturerredefining Earth observation with hyperspectral imaging. He founded Pixxel alongside Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019 while completing his undergraduate degree at BITS Pilani. Their goal: to bring the benefits of space down to Earth through a hyperspectral imaging constellation that could monitor the planet’s health in unprecedented detail. At Pixxel, Awais leads the company’s long-term strategy, product vision, and global partnerships. Under his leadership, Pixxel has successfully launched six commercial hyperspectral satellites—Fireflies—delivering imagery at 5-meter resolution and 135+ spectral bands. This makes Pixxel’s data 50x richer than traditional Earth observation systems, enabling earlier risk detection and more intelligent decision-making across industries. Once fully deployed, Pixxel’s upcoming constellation of 18-24 satellites will capture imagery across up to 250 bands in both VNIR and SWIR ranges, with a 40 km swath and daily global revisit capability