The company recently began working with New York Power Authority, the largest state public power organization in the U.S.
PALO ALTO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 1, 2022 / Buzz Solutions, an AI company focused on making energy infrastructure stable, smart and resilient, today announces it has raised a $3.3 million funding round to continue building its technology that can accurately and efficiently inspect transmission, distribution, and substation infrastructure helping to prevent power outages, wildfires and other dangerous situations. Led by GoPoint Ventures with participation from MaC Venture Capital, this is the third round of funding for the company.
Buzz is leading the digital transformation of safeguarding the world's energy infrastructure. In addition to power grid inspections, the company is now expanding its offerings to include substations and oil and gas infrastructure. In these new markets, Buzz will provide analytics for pipeline and renewable asset inspections including wind, solar, and hydroelectric, delivering component and anomaly detections, as well as methane leakage detections.
Buzz is leading the digital transformation of safeguarding the world's energy infrastructure.
The company has achieved traction with major utilities including their newest utility customer, New York Power Authority (NYPA), the largest state public power organization in the U.S. Buzz has already validated its solution with several other utilities, including with Newfoundland Power, which was a part of the EPRI Incubatenergy Labs program in 2021. Buzz is also working with several notable inspection service providers globally and has partnered with industry leader POWER Engineers.
"We are excited to invest in Buzz Solution's artificial intelligence technology that allows energy companies to cost-effectively inspect crucial infrastructure," said Andrew Heyman, Partner at GoPoint Ventures. "As SaaS investors with a long history of also owning assets in the power and energy sector, we think that Buzz's predictive analytics and actionable insights are the most accurate and comprehensive on the market."
"Our technology has never been more important not only to help save utility teams a tremendous amount of time and money, but to help prevent dangerous situations, like wildfires and power outages, to keep people and property safe," said Kaitlyn Albertoli, co-founder and CEO, Buzz Solutions. "The new infrastructure bill passed by Congress will be a tremendous push in the right direction for utilities to modernize their grids, onboard renewables at accelerated rates and continue to electrify in a more stable way. It's a major opportunity to innovate and transform the industry as we move to a decarbonized future."
The Buzz Solutions PowerAI platform
Buzz Solutions' AI-powered asset inspection platform, PowerAI, is answering the utility industry's call to adopt more innovative technology due to antiquated infrastructure, climate change, regulatory mandates for more frequent inspections, and the overall need for cost-effectiveness:
- First, utility teams currently capture millions of images of power line images via drone, helicopter or aircraft. Analyzing this data has been completely manual for linemen and field technicians with processing time taking six to seven months. During this lag time between image capture and fully analyzed reports, a line could go down, causing a dangerous situation. In contrast, Buzz Solutions is an AI-first approach that provides the most in-depth and granular fault detection very quickly so utility teams can act right away.
- Second, there is a huge drive to invest in vegetation management, which is especially important with climate change. Many utility groups prioritize it as a top budget item. Buzz Solutions can help identify critical "hot spot" areas for tree trimming and removal of unwanted bushes, weeds or branches before issues come up.
"At MaC, we're incredibly excited about the potential Buzz Solutions brings to an industry that has been long underserved in regards to technology," said Haley Farnsworth, Partner, MaC Ventures. "Not only will their AI streamline operations and provide cost savings, it will also make utility inspections much safer for those involved. We also love that Buzz will enable utilities to better prevent disasters such as wildfires. Kaitlyn and Vik bring an edge to the industry, and we feel there is no better team to solve this problem."
"With extreme weather on the rise due to climate change, keeping power grids stable, resilient and healthy is key. This round of funding is going to help us continue to enhance our technology and bring it to more utility groups around the world," said Vikhyat Chaudhry, co-founder, COO and CTO, Buzz Solutions.
On Dec. 13, Buzz will host a live demo of the platform. If interested in participating, you can sign up here.
Images available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1A2NUwbLJyaeTmr1-ECboY7Gh4nYgFlH6
About Buzz Solutions
Buzz Solutions is a Palo Alto-based startup company safeguarding the world's energy infrastructure by providing AI-powered predictive analytics and actionable insights from infrastructure inspections. The company enables field teams to perform the prioritized maintenance in a timely manner reducing the likelihood of wildfires, forced shutdowns, and power outages resulting from failed grid infrastructure. Buzz has worked with several large utilities across North America, including the New York Power Authority and Newfoundland Power. The company has recently closed on a round of funding with GoPoint and MaC Ventures, and is proudly supported by additional investors including POWER Engineers, Blackhorn Ventures, Vodia Ventures, and Ulu Ventures. For more information, visit www.buzzsolutions.co.
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SOURCE: Buzz Solutions
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