Eternal Founder Deepinder Goyal in Advanced Talks to Back Spacetech Start-Up Pixxel

Eternal (formerly Zomato) founder Deepinder Goyal has started advanced stage talks to invest in spacetech start-up Pixxel’s ongoing funding round, according to a MoneyControl report. The move comes amid rising investor in space-focused ventures.  

The report stated that Goyal is set to invest about $25 million (roughly ₹225 crore) of his own capital into Pixxel, while the remaining nearly $30 million (around ₹270 crore) is expected to be contributed by existing backers.

Currently, investors including Glade Brook, Lightspeed, Google, Blume Ventures, Athera Venture Partners, Aditya Birla Ventures, and others are backing Pixxel. Founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019, Pixxel builds and operates hyperspectral imaging satellites for Earth observation and data analytics. 

It is in the process of raising $55-60 million and has already secured commitments covering a large portion of the round. However, the amount can go up to around $80-100 million, if the start-up plans to negotiate with more investors, the report added. Once the deal is completed, this will be Pixxel’s largest funding round till date. 

So far, it has raised over $90 million from various investors. 

Deepinder Goyal’s Other Investments

An investment in Pixxel would add to Goyal’s growing list of bets on emerging ventures. Recently, he put $20 million of personal capital into LAT Aerospace, an aviation start-up he cofounded with former colleague Surobhi Das. 

Last year, Goyal has also invited engineers to join a specialised propulsion research team at the start-up’s Bengaluru facility, where the focus is on developing gas turbine engines entirely within India.

He has also backed research firm Continue. Separately, he is in the process of raising about $55 million for Temple, a wearable technology company he founded. Temple is Deepinder Goyal’s new health-tech and wearable venture, built around an experimental head-worn sensor designed to continuously measure cerebral blood flow.

While Continue, Temple, Eternal, and LAT Aerospace operate independently and span different sectors, a Pixxel investment would stand out as Goyal’s first foray into deep-tech and space-tech, coming at a time when investor interest in the sector is gathering pace.