On Thursday, Uncharted (formerly known as Uncharted Power), a New York-based, venture capital-funded sustainable city infrastructure startup, announced that it has completed the first phase of a groundbreaking pilot project in Poughkeepsie, New York. According to the company, the successful milestone proves the technological feasibility of its flagship Uncharted Platform, a smart city platform for managing last mile infrastructure.
Uncharted will now advance to Phase Two of its partnership with the City of Poughkeepsie, and is inviting cities and developers across the U.S. to join its signature Infrastructure Innovation Initiative (III), for a full demonstration of the pilot platform and the opportunity to collaborate on how the platform can solve last mile infrastructure challenges before its general release in 2022. Current III participants include Watt Investment Partners, Energy Well Texas, Silicon Harlem, The Chazen Companies, and DMC Group.
Last mile
“Bridging the last mile – whether we’re talking about resilient power grid technologies, more efficient water systems, or equitable mobility services – has always been of critical importance,” said Jessica O. Matthews, Founder and CEO of Uncharted. “Today’s communities cannot afford to deploy and manage the smart and sustainable infrastructure solutions that can solve their biggest problems, and the Uncharted Platform aims to fix this.”
Uncharted says the Biden Administration’s recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework presents a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to build truly smart, sustainable, and equitable cities. To that end, Uncharted says its track record in Poughkeepsie makes it uniquely suited to support cities and developers as they look to leverage the resources provided by the framework to achieve their infrastructure development goals.
“The City of Poughkeepsie is excited to be a leader in demonstrating a new paradigm for last mile public infrastructure development and management in partnership with Uncharted,” said Brian Martinez, PhD, Commissioner of Finance for the City of Poughkeepsie. “Technological change in public organizations is rarely viewed as a nexus between interoperability and last mile infrastructure. If we think about lack of interoperability in last mile infrastructure as siloes of service capability, it’s easy to see siloes as hindrances to development of efficient, effective and equitable public services – and the City of Poughkeepsie is no different. We look forward to working with Uncharted to use their platform in ways that reimagine city infrastructure as holistic and connected services. In this view, interoperability is a means to support smart economic development, equity, and resiliency, and a way to curb costs.”
The Uncharted Platform consists of a robust edge cloud, a digital twin, a distributed ledger, and a suite of plug-and-play solutions for the built environment, including the company’s AASHTO HS-20 rated paver solution for storing technology in the ground. With these technologies, Uncharted says its platform reduces the cost of upgrading and scaling last mile infrastructure, and streamlines the secure sharing, analysis, and visualization of last mile infrastructure data, making it easier to finance, plan, deploy, and manage critical infrastructure in cities.
Slam dunk
“Addressing the inequitable access to the most basic services for our communities has never been more critical,” said Chris Paul, Uncharted investor and NBA basketball player. “With the company’s recent technological deployment in Poughkeepsie, Uncharted is at an exciting inflection point, and I am looking forward to supporting this next stage of the company’s growth.”
Paul isn’t the only pro baller backing Uncharted, whose investors include Magic Johnson Enterprises, Kyrie Irving, and Carmelo Anthony. Other investors include funds Unseen Capital, Reform Ventures, BBG Ventures, Kapor Capital, Backstage Capital, WOCstar, entertainers Issa Rae, Hannibal Buress and others.
