HyLight

HyLight provides large-scale aerial inspection services for energy infrastructure using its proprietary hydrogen-powered airship drones. The company was founded in 2022 by Martin Bocken (CEO), Thomas Laporte (CBO), and Josef Rokusek (CTO) and is headquartered in Paris, France. The founding team combines experience in engineering, sustainable energy, business, and a passion for decarbonizing the aerospace industry. HyLight is an alumnus of the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator program.

The company's core offering is its "Inspection as a Service" model, which utilizes a hybrid drone-airship called the 'HyLighter'. This platform is designed for long-range, energy-efficient flights, capable of flying for up to 10 hours and covering distances of 350 kilometers in a single mission. It uses hydrogen as both a lifting gas and a power source for its fuel cell, resulting in zero greenhouse gas emissions. The HyLighter can be equipped with a variety of high-resolution sensors, including LiDAR, optical, thermal, and infrared cameras, to collect precise data for its clients.

HyLight's business model allows clients, primarily large energy infrastructure operators, to pay per kilometer inspected, which eliminates the need for large upfront capital investment in inspection hardware. The company focuses on two main activities: detecting methane leaks on gas pipelines and inspecting power lines for defects to prevent outages and wildfires. By offering a solution that is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than traditional methods like helicopters, HyLight addresses the challenge of conducting precise inspections over vast areas. In April 2024, the company announced it had raised €3.7 million in a funding round from investors including Y Combinator, Kima Ventures, and Marc Tarpenning, the co-founder of Tesla. This funding is intended to help HyLight scale its operations and accelerate the industrial deployment of its airship drones.

Keywords: aerial inspection, hydrogen airship, infrastructure monitoring, methane leak detection, power line inspection, zero-emission, drone services, long-range monitoring, data collection, asset integrity, utility inspection, energy infrastructure, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), airship technology, clean technology, preventative maintenance, remote sensing, LiDAR inspection, gas pipelines, grid reliability