Awais Ahmed is the Founder and CEO of Pixxel, a space data company and spacecra manufacturer redefining Earth observation with hyperspectral imaging. Pixxel's constellation of the world’s highest-resolution hyperspectral imaging satellites is designed for daily revisit frequency anywhere on Earth. It helps detect, monitor, and predict critical global phenomena across agriculture, oil and gas, mining, environment, and other sectors in up to 50x richer detail.

Awais was one of the founding members and engineering lead at Hyperloop India, a national team that was a finalist at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017 and built India’s first Hyperloop pod prototype. While finishing his undergraduate degree, Awais and the team entered the SpaceX Hyperloop competition. They became the only winning team from India, resulting in an invite to the SpaceX HQ to build, demonstrate and race the Hyperloop vehicle. This experience sparked Awais’s decision to devote his career to space innovation, and he launched Pixxel with his cofounder, Kshitij Khandelwal, in 2019.

Pixxel was the only startup from India selected for the first batch of 10 startups in Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in Los Angeles in 2019. Most recently, Pixxel's work in advancing climate data through hyperspectral imaging satellites was recognised in TIME's Best Inventions 2023 list under the Sustainability category. Fast Company and Via Satellite named Pixxel among the top ten most innovative companies in 2023 and the company was amongst WEF’s Tech Pioneers List in 2024.

Awais has delivered talks on the science and engineering of building high-performance space cameras at various well-known institutions, including Stanford’s Centre for Image Engineering. He has received numerous awards, such as Forbes 30 Under 30, Fortune 40 Under 40, and MIT Technology Review’s 35 Under 35 Innovators list in the Climate and Energy category. He has raised over $95M for Pixxel, which resulted in the launch of the world’s first commercial hyperspectral imaging satellites.

Awais completed his Master's in Mathematics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, India.