Hydromea

Hydromea SA is a Swiss underwater robotics and wireless optical communication company founded in 2014 as a spin-off from EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) by Alexander Bahr, Felix Schill, and Igor Martin. Headquartered in Renens (near Lausanne), Vaud, Switzerland, the company employs approximately 22 people and has raised over $4 million from investors including Innosuisse, Eurostars, Creative Destruction Lab, Privilège Ventures, and SICTIC. Hydromea's core mission is to democratize access to submerged infrastructure data through an end-to-end platform combining autonomous underwater robots, optical wireless modems, and data management software — replacing traditional tethers and slow acoustic modems with high-bandwidth, cable-free optical links.

Their LUMA product family comprises underwater optical wireless modems using blue/UV LED light pulses (underwater LiFi) achieving data rates up to 10 Mbit/s at depths up to 6,000 m, with variants including LUMA X, LUMA X-UV, LUMA 500ER, LUMA 250LP, and the ultra-compact LUMA 100 for small ROVs and AUVs. LUMA is claimed to be 1,500x more power-efficient per bit than the fastest acoustic modem. Their EXRAY ROV is a compact, backpack-portable inspection vehicle weighing 9 kg with 200 m depth rating, up to 6 hours battery life, FHD/4K camera, and optional FLYOUT wireless sub-ROV module using LUMA optics.

EXRAY is class-certified for visual and NDT data collection. In a landmark achievement, Hydromea demonstrated the world's first subsea-to-satellite real-time link in collaboration with Equinor. Customers and partners include Subsea 7, TotalEnergies, Ashtead Technology, DOW, and Air Control Entech.