Hypermile YC Application

Summer 2020Acquired

Hypermile went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2020 batch as a B2B company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2020
Industry: B2BEngineering, Product and Design
Team size: 11
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2021

Founders

Jakub LangrFounder
James HennesseyFounder

What Hypermile does

Hypermile is on a mission to improve trucking efficiency, sustainability and safety by developing an AI driver assistance system 🚛 🌎🌱. Today, fuel is the main cost component for logistics operators, accounting for >1/3 of all operating costs. Driving behavior is a key factor affecting overall fuel consumption and can increase fuel use by up to 35%. However, current solutions are not cost effective, so logistics operators are constantly looking for new solutions. In addition, logistics operators are under huge sustainability pressure, as Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) are responsible for 16% of the UK's transport emissions but only 5% of the miles travelled. While electric vehicle sales for passenger vehicles are on the rise, the same can't be said for long-haul HGVs due to high initial cost and limited range, making it impractical for logistic purposes. With this problem in mind, we aim to leverage the latest AI techniques to improve the fuel efficiency of diesel trucks today, and increase the range of zero-emission trucks of the future. Our product Hypermile Co-Pilot is a retrofittable AI cruise control for commercial vehicles focused on controlling the speed of the truck efficiently. We have trained the AI algorithms to learn the best techniques for saving fuel: anticipating how traffic flow will change, optimising speed based on the road gradient and maximizing vehicle coasting. As a result, we can reduce diesel consumption by 11% and extend the range of battery-electric vehicles by 15%. The long term vision is to incrementally build higher levels of autonomy with the next milestone being a Level-3 autonomous trucking solution. The company was founded in May 2020 and raised a $1.5M pre-seed round in May 2021 from Y Combinator, Greg Brockman (CTO of OpenAI), Luc Vincent (former Executive VP of Autonomous Driving at Lyft Level 5) and others. We’ve received a number of R&D grants from Innovate UK, Department for Transport and Horizons 2020. We’re currently a team of 10 across Commercial, Product and Engineering (including 4. sub-teams cloud software, machine learning, automotive software and electronics).

Hypermile's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Hypermile, Summer 2020 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Hypermile

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Driver co-pilot to make trucking more efficient

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We build Hypermile Co-Pilot, an AI speed controller retrofit for commercial trucks. It adjusts truck speed by anticipating traffic flow and road gradients to save fuel, reducing diesel consumption by 11% and extending electric truck range by 15%. Over time we'll layer in more autonomy, aiming for Level 3 self-driving trucks.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in London, England and the company is based here as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

London provides access to relevant talent, grants, and logistics operators. It's also a hub for sustainable transport innovation, which aligns with our mission.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Hypermile YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Hypermile's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Hypermile would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.