AI Startup Exodigo Raises $105 Million to Make Underground Maps

Saritha Rai, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Exodigo, a startup that uses artificial intelligence and sensors to map the underground, closed a $105 million funding round led by Greenfield Partners and Zeev Ventures.

New investors including SquarePeg, 10D VC and National Grid Partners participated in the Series A round, the company said on Tuesday. The startup, with its main offices in Tel Aviv and Palo Alto, California, will use the capital to develop its products, build out its team, and expand globally.

Exodigo, established in June 2021, makes underground maps used by some of the world’s largest energy, utility, transportation and construction companies. There is more than 20 million miles of buried pipelines, cables and wires in the US alone, and companies incur more than $30 billion in costs a year because of damage to such infrastructure, according to the trade group Common Ground Alliance.

Better underground maps also make digging more efficient. Exodigo estimates that companies spend more than $100 billion each year on avoidable excavation and exploratory drilling, boosting carbon dioxide emissions and harming the environment.

“There are massive, 20-30 year-long, multi-billion dollar projects underway in every part of the world, and they are plagued by delays and budget over-runs,” Exodigo Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Suard, 32, said in a video interview. “We help reduce the unknown in the underground.”

Suard and co-founder Ido Gonen created the company after retiring from the Israeli armed forces. The startup has 120 employees, with more than 90 of them in its R&D unit in Tel Aviv and the rest in the US.

It uses sensors to scan the subsurface and deploys AI to make the data digestible. The company collects over 500 gigabytes of data per scanned acre, pinpointing cables, pipes and other hazards. It says its maps help reduce preliminary digging and excavation by as much as 90%.

Customers include the global infrastructure consultancy Aecom, LA Metro, Israel Electric Corp., Houston Metro, UK’s energy company National Grid Plc, and Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Suard declined to disclose Exodigo’s valuation, saying it is “not yet” a unicorn.