SewerAI: €14 million investment will fund R&D

US-based SewerAI has secured €14 million Series B funding. The round was led by Innovius Capital and will enable the company to develop its cloud-based AI and photogrammetry-driven subscription products.

To market and beyond inspection

SewerAI began life in 2019, co-founded by Matthew Rosenthal and Billy Gilmartin. With both co-founders having working knowledge of the wastewater treatment industry, they had identified an opportunity to train AI for sewer inspections, primarily to automate the capture data and identification of defects.

Its client currently includes municipalities, utilities and private contractors. “SewerAI is continuing to grow, and we’re seeing an acceleration in demand for our platform as we enable people to do more with existing budgets, which has resulted in us closing our first seven-figure contracts,” Rosenthal told Tech Crunch.

The funding is planned for go-to-market expansion, AI model training, hiring, and expanding the company’s product portfolio to move beyond its current focus on tools inspection.

The need for smart sewer technology

Talking to TechCrunch, Rosenthal, said: “Most infrastructure was built post-WW2 and is reaching the end of its useful life, leading to more frequent failures and increased costs. SewerAI revolutionises underground infrastructure inspection and management with its AI-driven software-as-a-service platform.”

The Series B funding follows the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest Clean Watersheds Needs Survey, which was released to the US Congress in May. The survey states that more than €589 billion will be needed just to maintain existing wastewater, stormwater and other clean water infrastructure over the next two decades. This represents a 73 per cent increase over the figure stated in the previous survey held in 2012.

Smart sewer technologies are increasingly attracting series funding as the industry addresses its challenges, both current and future.

Funding led by Innovius Capital 

Led by Innovius Capital, the €15 million funding round was also supported by Emerald VC, Epic Ventures, Suffolk Ventures, Bentley Systems, Burnt Island Ventures, as well as a number of individual investors.

The investment takes SewerAI’s total funding to €23.4 million.