HyLight, the French startup specializing in aerial inspection of critical infrastructure using autonomous hydrogen-powered airships, has just raised €13 million from Rubio Impact Ventures, DRW and Teampact Ventures, joined by existing investors Y Combinator and Ring Capital.
Founded in 2022, the young company has already reached a milestone few industrial startups achieve: designing, building, industrializing and operating its own aircraft in France, while developing the software and artificial intelligence that turn the data they collect into directly actionable insights. In four years, its HyLighters have inspected thousands of kilometers across France, flown in several European countries and begun replacing helicopter missions for major infrastructure operators. The fresh funding will now enable HyLight to scale: industrializing its fleet, strengthening its automated data analysis capabilities and deploying a new data infrastructure across Europe to help monitor and protect critical networks and territories.
Martin Bocken, co-founder and CEO of HyLight, stated: “Most power lines are still inspected by helicopter, just as they were fifty years ago. Our HyLighters already do the same job, with greater precision and less risk. This funding takes us from four aircraft to a fleet.”
Power lines, gas pipelines and railways face growing inspection needs as climate change, tightening regulations and safety risks converge, with more than 80 million kilometers of linear infrastructure worldwide requiring billions of euros in investment every year. Yet helicopters remain the dominant inspection solution, despite high costs, emissions of up to one metric ton of CO₂e per flight hour, noise and limited availability. Existing alternatives only partially address the need: drones lack range, satellites lack precision, and ground sensors offer only localized coverage.
HyLight has reached a decisive milestone: operational replacement. Its aircraft are already carrying out missions for Enedis, NaTran, Téréga, VINCI and SNCF Réseau to monitor network integrity, detect defects and identify methane leaks.
At 12 meters long, the HyLighter combines the performance of a long-endurance aircraft with the precision of an inspection platform. Electrically powered by hydrogen, it flies with no direct emissions and very low noise levels for up to ten hours, with a target range of 350 kilometers. It can carry up to 10 kg of sensors, including LiDAR, cameras and methane detectors, delivering 1 mm/pixel resolution imaging at an altitude of 25 meters and LiDAR density exceeding 1,000 points per square meter.
Authorized by the French civil aviation authority (DGAC) and the EASA, the HyLighter flies beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) over critical infrastructure, in rural, suburban and urban environments. It has flown over the Palace of Versailles and has been showcased on the Champs-Élysées, at VivaTech and at the Grand Palais, proof that it can operate in sensitive, densely populated areas.
Beyond aerial inspection, HyLight turns flight data into decision-making tools that automatically identify and geolocate more than 50 types of defects and vegetation-related risks across power grids, replacing thousands of raw images with precise, actionable information for maintenance teams. As flights become more frequent, this data will build a continuously enriched digital twin of the infrastructure and territories HyLight covers, creating a new layer of multimodal data with future applications in insurance, agriculture and public land management.
HyLight is already industrializing: its new production facility is now online, with further internalization of strategic component manufacturing underway, targeting up to 15 HyLighters operated simultaneously in 2027, compared to four today. The new funding will support the recruitment of 50 employees across engineering, AI and data, operations, regulatory affairs and business development, and accelerate commercial expansion across Europe — with Germany and the Netherlands as priority markets — as the founding team, Martin Bocken, Josef Rokusek and Thomas Laporte (average age 27), preserves the integrated model that has let HyLight move fast: aeronautical engineering, software, AI and field operations under one roof.
Helmer Schukken, managing partner at Rubio Impact Ventures, commented: “In HyLight we see a team and a technology with the potential to change how we keep critical infrastructure safe. Today, powerlines, pipelines and railways are still inspected by helicopter, which is expensive, unsafe, polluting and—as workforces age—insufficiently available. HyLight offers a clean and scalable alternative that does the same work reliably, even over densely populated areas, and has the potential to deliver unrivaled cost savings. That means faults are caught earlier, before they become leaks or outages, and the infrastructure we rely on becomes both more dependable and a good deal cleaner. We are glad to back Martin, Josef and Thomas in making this the new standard.”