National Grid Partners (NGP) has made an investment in US-based artificial intelligence (AI) for gas safety and risk reduction company Urbint.
The investment will enable Urbint to speed up the expansion of its AI-based enterprise risk platform for gas infrastructure.
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 CEO and founder Corey Capasso said: “We are thrilled that National Grid Partners is investing in technology to make communities safer and more resilient.
“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.”
NGP, the investment arm of National Grid, is the utility sector’s venture capital and innovation company in Silicon Valley, with an aim to play a major role in the global disruption of energy.
NGP’s investment in the AI company is part of National Grid’s efforts towards the safety and reliability of natural gas delivery.
National Grid Partners founder and president Lisa Lambert said: “Our investment in Urbint supports our shared vision of the power of AI to make the gas industry safer.
“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.”
Recently, Urbint acquired Opvantek, a provider of utility software applications to evaluate risk over 25% of natural gas distribution pipelines in the US.
Urbint now services the majority of the North American natural gas utility industry
Presently, Urbint services 9 of the top 10 largest gas utilities in North America.
The company’s partners include National Grid, Southern Company, Con Edison, Exelon, Dominion, NiSource, and Xcel Energy among others.
