- The investment follows a three-year deal where National Grid will leverage Urbint’s AI technology to predict and prevent third-party excavation damage to gas lines
- Urbint now services the majority of the North American natural gas utility industry, including 9 of the top 10 largest gas utilities
NEW YORK and LOS GATOS, Calif, Nov. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Urbint, the market leader in artificial intelligence (AI) for gas safety and risk reduction, today announced that National Grid Partners (NGP), the investment and innovation arm of National Grid plc (LSE: NG; NYSE: NGG), one of the world’s largest investor-owned utility companies, has made a strategic investment in the company. Urbint will use the funding to accelerate the development of an AI-based enterprise risk platform for gas infrastructure.
Prior to the investment, National Grid plc and Urbint entered into a three-year agreement to use Urbint’s AI solutions to prevent third-party excavation damage to pipelines. “We are thrilled that National Grid Partners is investing in technology to make communities safer and more resilient,” said Corey Capasso, CEO and founder of Urbint. “It’s a pivotal moment for Urbint as we demonstrate the quantifiable safety impact our solutions bring to our utility partners and their customers. We could not be happier to work with an industry-leading gas operations group as we release our one-of-a-kind enterprise risk platform to the industry, which can assess infrastructure risk across every gas asset in real time.”
National Grid Partners plays a key role in the global disruption of energy as the utility industry’s first Silicon Valley-based venture capital and innovation firm. National Grid has invested significantly in its U.S. operations to maintain the safety and reliability of its network. NGP’s strategic investment in Urbint further demonstrates National Grid’s commitment to excellence in the safety and reliability of natural gas delivery.
“Our investment in Urbint supports our shared vision of the power of AI to make the gas industry safer,” said Lisa Lambert, founder and president of National Grid Partners. “We look forward to working with Urbint more closely to further demonstrate the value new technology can bring to gas providers making risk driven decisions.” Urbint will leverage this investment to continue to advance its research and development on risk-based solutions, as well as begin its international expansion.
This news also comes just weeks after Urbint completed its acquisition of Opvantek, a provider of best-in-class utility software applications to assess risk more than 25% of natural gas distribution pipelines in the United States. Urbint now services the majority of the North American natural gas utility industry, including 9 of the top 10 largest gas utilities in North America. Urbint’s utility partners include National Grid, Southern Company, Con Edison, Exelon, Dominion, NiSource, and Xcel Energy among others.
About Urbint
Urbint empowers utilities and infrastructure operators to make communities safer and more resilient with artificial intelligence (AI) that quantifies the tradeoffs between safety, reliability, and affordability. Urbint’s tools are used by gas pipeline operators to maximize risk-reduction through intelligent resource allocation and decision-making. Key to Urbint’s approach is a proprietary model of the world that gives operators an unprecedented level of insight into the external factors that drive risk on distribution pipeline systems. To learn more about Urbint, visit www.urbint.com. Follow us on Twitter @urbint.
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 was founded to future-proof National Grid’s business and build an entrepreneurial culture and capability. NGP makes and manages strategically and financially attractive investments and leads company-wide disruptive innovation and culture transformation efforts. The organization focuses on innovation, incubation, corporate venture capital, business development, and culture acceleration, providing a multi-functional approach to change the status quo. NGP is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Los Gatos and San Francisco, and is also located in Boston, London, and New York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow us on LinkedIn (National Grid Partners) and Twitter (@ngpartners_).
Media Contact:
Eugene Hunt
Trevi Communications for Urbint
978-750-0333 x.101
gene@trevicomm.com