New York, June 18, 2020 -- Urbint, a market leader in artificial intelligence for field risk management, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Energy Impact Partners and Piva, with Salesforce Ventures and National Grid Partners participating. Urbint’s technology predicts and prevents threats to energy infrastructure and worker safety in the field. The company will use the new funding to scale its Field Risk Management platform and expand into new industries and countries, bringing quantifiable improvements in worker and infrastructure safety as well as emissions reduction to communities around the world.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, utilities and infrastructure operators are using Urbint’s technology to target emergency work to keep communities safe while protecting workers from unnecessary virus exposure risk on low priority field work. Urbint is also helping them identify threats that could cause high-consequence outages to essential facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes.
“A few years ago, we saw that utilities were facing an overwhelming number of threats in the field, stemming from aging infrastructure, extreme weather, and workforce turnover, and didn’t have adequate tools to make informed, risk-driven safety decisions,” said Corey Capasso, Founder and CEO of Urbint. “We built Urbint to arm them with predictive AI to stay one step ahead. The pandemic has only intensified this need as dangers to infrastructure and essential workers increase and resources are strained. This investment will grow our reach to keep even more communities safe.”
“When we first invested in Urbint two years ago, we felt they were poised to take the sector forward by bringing 21st century AI solutions to 20th and in some cases 19th century infrastructure,” said Hans Kobler, CEO of Energy Impact Partners. “Corey and the team have more than delivered on that promise, and now more than 40 utilities rely on Urbint to reduce operational risk.”
“Urbint’s technology is a necessity—it enables the world’s essential utilities to focus scarce resources on the highest-priority risks, with real world implications from worker safety to explosion prevention, greenhouse gas mitigation and more,” said Bennett Cohen, Partner at Piva. “Urbint’s combination of first-class enterprise AI, deep industry expertise and a strong leadership team has already led to impressive traction, with a growth opportunity to become the dominant solution for infrastructure risk in the utility market.”
“The Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund supports a new generation of startups that are focused on driving positive social and environmental change,” said Suzanne DiBianca, Chief Impact Officer of Salesforce. “We're excited to support Urbint, who is using their technology to empower customers to reduce emissions and make communities safer and more resilient.”
“Not only are we an investor in Urbint, but National Grid also uses Urbint’s technology to predict and prevent safety incidents, keeping the community safe,” said Lisa Lambert, Founder and President of National Grid Partners. “AI safety technology is especially vital to reduce risk during this pandemic, and we’re proud to grow our investment in Urbint.”
About Urbint
Urbint predicts threats to workers and critical infrastructure to stop incidents before they happen. Leveraging real-world data and artificial intelligence, Urbint’s software delivers a clear picture of risk up to a week in advance, so decision makers can take action in the right place, at the right time, before an incident occurs. Many of the largest energy and infrastructure companies in North America trust Urbint to protect their workers, assets, and the communities they serve.
About Energy Impact Partners
Energy Impact Partners (EIP) is a global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable energy future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world's most forward-looking utilities and operating companies to advance innovation. With over $1.5 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit and infrastructure – and has a team of more than 45 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, and Cologne. For more information on EIP, please visit http://www.energyimpactpartners.com.
About Piva
Piva Invests in the leading people and companies solving the world’s greatest industrial and energy problems with breakthrough technologies and new, innovative ways of doing business. Based in San Francisco and backed by a global Fortune 500 energy company, our accomplished and connected team invests in early to growth stage companies around the world. For more information, please visit Piva.vc, on LinkedIn or Medium.
About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Salesforce Ventures, the global investment arm of Salesforce, invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce Ventures is building the world's largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and extending that technology to customers. Portfolio companies receive funding, strategic advisory and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 400 companies, including DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, Zoom and others across 22 countries since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.
About National Grid Partners
National Grid Partners (NGP) is the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid plc., one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. NGP invests for strategic and financial impact and leads companywide culture transformation efforts. The organization provides a multi-functional approach to building startups, including innovation (new business creation), incubation, corporate venture capital, business development and culture acceleration. NGP is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in Boston, London, and New York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow us on Twitter (@ngpartners_).
