SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AiDash, a San Francisco Bay Area-based leading satellite analytics company, today announced that it has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) and National Grid Partners (NGP). At a time when wildfires, hurricanes, pipeline leaks and power outages have proved catastrophic to the utility and energy industries, AiDash is helping them mitigate these problems and be resilient using satellite data and AI at scale. The funding will be used to boost product innovation, hire new talent and further plans for global expansion.
AiDash uses high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery coupled with Artificial Intelligence to transform operations and maintenance (O&M) activities like Vegetation Management, Remote Monitoring & Survey and Disaster and Disruptions Management for global utility and energy customers. The company is already working with several Fortune 500 utilities in the United States and is set to expand its operations in Europe, Australia and Asia.
“As wildfires, hurricanes and COVID-19 pose new challenges to the utility and energy industries, they’re looking for innovative technologies to transform their O&M activities. At a time when drones and LiDAR have failed to yield results, satellite technology is breaking new ground. AiDash’s Intelligent Vegetation Management System is the world’s only satellite-powered vegetation management system deployed at scale for large utilities,” said AiDash CEO and co-founder Abhishek Vinod Singh. “The funding will allow us to boost deployment of satellite analytics as the technology of choice for automated operations & maintenance,” he added.
Yashwanth Hemaraj, Partner at BGV, and Andre Turenne, Director at NGP, will join the Board at AiDash.
AiDash co-founders Abhishek Vinod Singh, Rahul Saxena and Nitin Das are serial entrepreneurs with successful exits and experience running Tier-1 VC-funded companies. All of them are alumni of prestigious IITs and they bring with them deep experience in the fields of engineering, data science and business.
Investor Perspectives
“At National Grid Partners, our objective is to revolutionize the energy sector using emerging technology, and AiDash with its satellite analytics platform brackets it perfectly. We’re delighted to come together and pool interests with AiDash to create a smarter and future-ready industry today,” Lisa Lambert, Founder and President of National Grid Partners said.
“BGV’s investment thesis focuses exclusively on Enterprise 4.0 startups, a new wave of cloud-native ventures that combine artificial intelligence, intelligent automation and proprietary access to data to deliver actionable insights for enterprise businesses. AiDash clearly falls into that camp. Their AI models leverage satellite data to deliver millions of dollars of savings for utility companies through intelligent vegetation management applications. We believe they are particularly well-positioned to arm other core industries that have geographically dispersed critical assets with data-driven insights, improving system reliability and transforming operations,” said Yashwanth Hemaraj, Partner at BGV.
About AiDash
AiDash is an AI-first vertical SaaS company enabling satellite-powered operations and maintenance for utility, energy, and other core industries with geographically distributed assets. AiDash uses high-resolution, multispectral and SAR data from the world’s leading satellite constellations that are fed into its proprietary AI models to make timely predictions for O&M activities. These AI models empower AiDash’s full-stack applications and enable efficient planning, prioritization, execution, review and audit of O&M activities using satellite analytics. Visit aidash.com.
About Benhamou Global Ventures
BGV is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on Enterprise 4.0 technology innovation. The partners at BGV drove successive waves of enterprise technology disruption in Silicon Valley and have over 300 years of combined operational experience. The firm adopts a global outlook, sourcing companies from innovation hubs around the world, and invests in cross-border ventures anchored in Silicon Valley. BGV has offices in Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel and maintains a presence in France and India. Visit bgv.vc.
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 invests for strategic and financial impact and leads companywide culture transformation efforts. The organization provides a multi-functional approach to building startups, including innovation (new business creation), incubation, corporate venture capital, business development and culture acceleration. NGP is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in Boston, London, and New York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow us on Twitter (@ngpartners_).
