Funding

Urbint Lands $20 Million for AI Technology

NEW YORK, — Urbint, which develops artificial intelligence software to manage risk in the utility industry, 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.

Powered by artificial intelligence, Urbint pinpoints risk in the construction, servicing, replacement, and protection of infrastructure. More than 40 utilities and asset operators throughout North America rely on Urbint to make risk-driven safety decisions to protect workers, infrastructure, the community and the environment.

Urbint’s customers include National Grid, Southern Company, Con Edison, Exelon, Dominion, NiSource, and Xcel Energy among others.

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.”