AI/Computer Vision Startup Led by Industry Veterans Revolutionized Sewer Inspection

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, has announced that it has secured $2 million in seed funding led by venture capital firms Builders VC and EPIC Ventures.

A Massive Infrastructure Challenge

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 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 — primarily through manual inspections, data delivered via physical disks, and desktop-based software.

The environmental stakes are equally alarming. Over 860 billion gallons of raw sewage leak into lakes, wetlands, rivers, and oceans each year — a direct consequence of deteriorating sewer infrastructure. This makes the need for accurate, fast, and cost-effective inspections all the more urgent.

The Problem with Traditional Inspection Methods

SewerAI CEO Matthew Rosenthal describes the current state of the industry:

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. 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 co-founder Bill Gilmartin have each spent more than 10 years working in the industry, bringing a unique combination of technical capability and real-world operational experience to SewerAI.

SewerAI's Breakthrough Technology

SewerAI harnesses the power of AI 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. At the heart of this offering is AutoCode™, a groundbreaking AI-powered, cloud-based software that significantly enhances and accelerates sewer infrastructure inspections.

Rosenthal explains how the technology transforms field operations:

With our technology, sewer inspection crews in the field can now change their workflow to survey significantly more feet of pipe per day. 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.

The SewerAI Inspection Management Platform®

Complementing AutoCode™ is the SewerAI Inspection Management Platform® (IMP) — a web-based tool that stores inspection data and enables users to stream inspection videos, view reports, and access data analytics and predictive models for risk assessment. Together, these tools empower asset owners to move from expensive reactive maintenance to more cost-effective proactive asset management.

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.

Broader Benefits for Society and the Environment

The implications of SewerAI's technology extend well beyond operational efficiency. As Rosenthal notes:

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 $2 million in seed funding now secured and a growing dataset that improves with every inspection, SewerAI is well-positioned to lead the transformation of sewer infrastructure management across the United States and beyond.

Source: NASTT — North American Society for Trenchless Technology