AiDash lands $27M investment to prevent wildfires and power outages with AI-powered satellite technology

Wildfires present a unique threat to the US critical infrastructures and power utility companies. To ensure that electric utility-led wildfire ignitions are prevented, using accurate, accessible and cost-effective technologies like Satellite Analytics and AI is vital to transform existing wildfire mitigation strategies.

In August 2020, wildfires engulfed thousands of acres in California. The wildfires were so bad they could be seen from space. According to NASA, the smoke from the blazes is clearly visible from 438 miles above the Earth. The wildfires were capture by ASTER instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. Instead of just observing the wildfires from space, now one tech startup wants to use AI-powered satellite technology to prevent wildfires and power outages.

Enter AiDash, a Silicon Valley-based startup and provider of AI-first vertical SaaS to enable satellite-powered operations and maintenance for utility, energy, and other core industries. Unlike NASA satellite, AiDash uses high-resolution, multispectral imagery, and SAR data from satellite constellations that are fed into its proprietary AI models to make timely predictions for operation and maintenance activities.

To further expand its operations, AiDash announced today it has secured a $27 million Series B funding round led by G2 Venture Partners. Other backers including BGV, National Grid Partners, and additional strategic partners, also participated. The latest round brings the company’s total funding amount to $33 million.

AiDash will use the funds to expand its vegetation management and sustainability products, helping utilities, energy, and other industries with geographically distributed assets transform their operations and maintenance activities.

“Wildfires were rampant in California when we first set out to launch AiDash, and utility companies were stuck following antiquated processes that required sending physical teams out to manually analyze thousands of miles of vegetation; a project that can take years to accomplish for just one utility alone,” said Abhishek Vinod Singh, AiDash Co-Founder and CEO. “Our Intelligent Vegetation Management System allows electric and gas utilities and other core industries to operate more efficiently, transforming their operations and maintenance activities. We’re excited to use this funding to grow our team and further develop our product offerings.”

AiDash Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS) is the only proven satellite-powered vegetation management system that automates operations and maintenance for large utility companies. The system combines hi-res multispectral satellite imagery and AI with data gathered on the ground to help customers make informed decisions that have impacts as critical as preventing a wildfire or reducing damages from an upcoming storm.

Yashwanth Hemaraj, Partner at BGV says, “Natural catastrophes such as wildfires, hurricanes, and floods illustrate every day that climate change has a serious impact on the global population. AiDash is focusing on this increasing pain point for society at large, demonstrating how technology can help us cope with the negative consequences of climate change. The AiDash platform offers both a proactive and reactive system to deal with these challenges, using multiple data sources — including satellite data and custom-built AI models — to address the needs of the utility and energy industries. With deep workflow automation built with the needs of its customers in mind, AiDash can help these industries meet increasingly stringent green regulation requirements and decrease their negative climactic impact.”

In the last year, AiDash has grown its customer count by six times, its annual recurring revenue by five times, and its employee count by five times. AiDash signed its first customer in early 2020 and now has over 30 customers residing in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada within the utilities, energy, transportation, water and wastewater, mining, and construction industries.

“We’re proud to partner with AiDash and support their efforts to leverage satellite and AI technology to improve operations and help utilities and other critical infrastructure adapt to the changing climate,” said David Mount, Partner at G2 Venture Partners.