On Thursday, Urbint, a New York startup that uses predictive analytics from artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent threats to physical infrastructure and workers in the field, received a strategic investment from Blue Bear Capital, a VC firm that invests in energy, infrastructure, and climate technology firms.
According to a formal announcement from the companies, Blue Bear’s growth investment will accelerate Urbint’s expansion into new sectors of the infrastructure market. Blue Bear Capital’s limited partners include owners of some of the largest independent solar, wind, and battery storage businesses in the world, covering asset development, operations, and ongoing services, all of which represent new markets for Urbint’s technology.
“As we are seeing in Texas and around the country, resilience is imperative as more frequent severe weather brought on by climate change collides with vulnerable infrastructure,” Urbint CEO and Founder Corey Capasso said in an official comment on the investment. “Blue Bear’s investment will bring our predictive AI to new operators as we work toward a more resilient and sustainable energy grid.”
“Urbint is bringing a new approach to an urgent problem: how do we protect the critical infrastructure and essential workers that our lives depend on every day?” said Carolin Funk, Investment Director at Blue Bear Capital. “As climate change and other threats intensify, AI will be vital in enabling society to target and address the highest risks. We’re excited to invest in Urbint’s first-of-its-kind technology to reduce risk in the field.”
SIF reduction
Last month, Urbint and major utility National Grid announced a new collaboration to protect workers across National Grid’s U.S. service territory. National Grid will deploy Urbint Lens for Worker Safety, a new AI-powered technology that identifies potential hazards to workers in the field, so supervisors can intervene to prevent serious injuries or fatalities (SIF).
“We have thousands of people performing critical infrastructure work in the field for our communities, and nothing is more important to us than sending them safely home at the end of every day,” said Rudolph Wynter, President of National Grid New York.
Per Urbint, serious worker injuries and fatalities across the infrastructure space have not been meaningfully reduced in the last 14 years. Today, with mounting challenges including extreme weather, aging infrastructure, a changing workforce, increased construction activity, and the covid-19 pandemic, field risk is at an all-time high. Urbint’s technology seeks to provide risk advance risk insights to utilities and other infrastructure operators so they can take preventive action for worker safety.
“Field work can be dangerous, and unfortunately research shows that even the most experienced workers can only spot 45 percent of worksite hazards on their own. That means it’s up to utilities and other operators to protect workers from everything else,” said Capasso. “National Grid is at the forefront of using AI technology to identify potential safety incidents before they happen.”
Urbint Lens for Worker Safety uses AI to identify worksite hazards before they threaten lives. The software enables field operators to identify high-risk tasks and take specific actions to prevent serious injuries and fatalities. The solution connects data on worksites, schedules, historical incidents, and environmental conditions, and identifies leading indicators of hazards to deliver a clear and actionable picture of safety risk across job sites.
“We’re always looking for cutting-edge ways to keep our communities and workers safe with technology,” said Lisa Lambert, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at National Grid and Founder and President of National Grid Partners, the utility’s venture capital arm, which is also an investor in Urbint. “Running safety programs and performing smart, timely interventions across hundreds of worksites and thousands of workers is a monumental task for any utility. Urbint’s AI will give us a clearer picture of risk so we can be as targeted as possible in protecting our teams.”
This latest news deepens the relationship between Urbint and National Grid, building on the utility’s success using Urbint’s AI-powered damage prevention technology to protect underground energy infrastructure from being struck by third party excavators.
Capasso added, “We want utility workers and contractors to go home to their families in the same condition that they left that morning. Utility workers are essential workers who literally power our society. We’re proud to work with National Grid to keep them safe.”
Other Urbint clients–in addition to National Grid–include major U.S. utilities such as DTE Energy, Xcel Energy, Southern Company, PG&E, ConEdison, Eversource, Centerpoint Energy, Entergy, NiSource, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy. The company had previously raised a Series B funding round in December 2020, led by Blue Bear Capital, including San Francisco energy VC Piva Capital, bringing the company to $35 million in funding as of that time.
Blue Bear Capital’s other portfolio companies include industrial and infrastructure cyber defense company Mission Secure, grid electrification company FreeWire Technologies, and IoT analytics firm Copper Labs. John Browne, Lord Browne of Madingley, former longtime BP energy CEO, serves on the fund’s board of advisors.
