Orbital Sidekick to bring hyperspectral imaging to pipeline monitoring

TechCrunch+ has reported that global monitoring services company, Orbital Sidekick has raised $10 million (€9.12 million) to introduce hyperspectral imaging to oil and gas pipeline monitoring.

The deal was led by Energy Innovation Capital, with additional participation from major North American energy companies Williams and ONEOK. The University of Minnesota’s Endowment and existing investors 11.2 Capital, Syndicate 708 and the CIA’s strategic investment arm In-Q-Tel also participated.

Orbital Sidekick CEO, Dan Katz says: ‘There’s really no persistent, objective, high-accuracy monitoring service that’s available to operators today. Katz alongside Orbital Sidekick co-founder Tushar Prabhakar created a solution. It is a data analytics product that generates intelligence using a constellation of satellites equipped with hyperspectral sensors. Hyperspectral lets companies see the chemical fingerprint of different substances, like gas, by collecting and measuring hundreds of wavelength bands. For pipelines in particular, hyperspectral information can help identify leaks even if the pipeline is buried underground, as is the case with the vast majority.

Orbital Sidekick is planning to expand within the energy sector, monitoring not just oil and gas pipelines but oil wells or off-shore oil facilities.