SewerAI secures $2 million in seed funding for its breakthrough technology
San Francisco, CA, August 3, 2020—SewerAI , a startup that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to inspect, identify and analyze sewer infrastructure defects before they reach catastrophic levels, announced that it has secured $2 million in seed funding led by venture capital firms Builders VC and EPIC Ventures.
SewerAI was established by sewer infrastructure inspection technology veterans to address the
massive problem of aging pipe infrastructure—with over 6 billion feet of sewer pipe in just the
U.S. alone, approximately 3 billion feet are in need of repair or replacement. US municipalities
spend approximately $50 billion each year maintaining this infrastructure, mainly using manual
inspections, data delivered via physical disks, and desktop-based software. SewerAI harnesses
the power of artificial intelligence and computer vision, along with a cloud workflow platform to
automatically detect pipeline defects, allowing sewer inspections to be completed in a fraction of
the time with increased accuracy.
“The cost to state and local communities to maintain and repair aging pipes, and the cost of
system failures, are in the billions of dollars,” explained SewerAI CEO Matthew Rosenthal.
“Utility companies and engineering firms help to manage the problem of aging pipes by
deploying robotic cameras to identify defects, collecting tens of thousands of hours of video each
day that are manually reviewed and assessed in a painstaking and time consuming process. This
inspection process is typically slow, expensive, and inconsistent—not to mention subject to
human error.”
Matt Rosenthal and Bill Gilmartin have separately been working in the industry for more than 10
years and have a unique combination of technical capability and real-world operational
experience. They have prior experience and seeing the problems for 10+ years and that is what
led to this AI that is solving real industry problems.
SewerAI’s groundbreaking AI, cloud-based software AutoCode™ significantly enhances and
accelerates this sewer infrastructure inspections.
“With our technology, sewer inspection crews in the field can now change their workflow to
survey significantly more feet of pipe per day,” continued Mr. Rosenthal. “ Machine learning
training dataset consists of millions of feet of labeled video inspection data, all reviewed and
validated by our expert labelers. This training dataset grows every day, allowing SewerAI
AutoCode to gain intelligence with every foot of inspection processed through the SewerAI IMP.
As the data comes in, our clients save money, accelerate their work flows, and receive more
accurate asset information than ever before.”
This technological breakthrough is setting the stage for the wastewater industry to enter the 4th
technological revolution; creating an entirely new category of business in the process.
Mr. Rosenthal added, “The cost savings to utility companies and their customers that can be
achieved with our technology, coupled with the environmental and public health benefits
resulting from a modernized sewer infrastructure, are tremendously beneficial to our society.”
With over 860 billion gallons of raw sewage leaking into lakes, wetlands, rivers and oceans, the
dire environmental impact of a deteriorating sewer infrastructure makes the need for accurate,
fast, and cost-effective inspections all the more urgent.
Coupled with the SewerAI Inspection Management Platform® (IMP)—a web-based tool that
stores the inspection data and enables users to stream inspection videos, view reports, and access
data analytics and predictive models for risk assessment—AutoCode™ empowers asset owners
to move from expensive reactive maintenance activities to more cost-effective proactive asset
management strategies.
SewerAI’s mission is to challenge the status quo of infrastructure management by delivering
advanced technology that helps engineers plan repair projects, automate routine maintenance
schedules, and manage environmental compliance with unparalleled efficiency and accuracy. For
more information, visit http://www.sewerai.com/