This VC Firm Funds High Tech For Industries That Need It Most
Forbes profiles Builders VC, the San Francisco-based venture firm that invested in SewerAI, highlighting how the firm targets industries like farming, manufacturing, real estate, and infrastructure that are underserved by cutting-edge technology.
Forbes recently profiled Jim Kim, founding member and general partner of Builders VC, a San Francisco-based venture firm investing out of a $175 million fund. The article, written by Daniel D'Ambrosio and published on February 24, 2020, shines a spotlight on how Builders VC is taking a contrarian approach to venture capital — targeting industries that most Silicon Valley firms overlook.
Investing Where Tech Is Needed Most
Kim's core thesis is straightforward but powerful: industries like farming, manufacturing, real estate, and health care are not spending money as wisely as they could on cutting-edge information technology. The result is a massive opportunity gap.
"That means the gap between what's technically possible and what's currently implemented is large."
With 12 years of experience in venture capital — including founding the GE Ventures group — Kim brings deep institutional knowledge to a 15-person firm that is deliberately positioning itself as the first true venture partner for companies in these underserved sectors.
"We want to be the first institutional money, the first true venture firm that writes a check. There's a lot of seed investing going on. It's important but a hard way to make money. It's a bit of a spray and pray strategy. Invest in everything under the sun and hope one makes it."
Builders VC takes a different approach — focused, deliberate, and grounded in real customer pain points.
Portfolio Spotlight: Solving Real Problems
The Forbes article highlights two Builders VC portfolio companies that exemplify this philosophy in action.
Performance Livestock Analytics
Founded by two individuals who grew up on a feedlot, Performance Livestock Analytics brings sophisticated per-cow analysis to the beef industry. Today, approximately 13% of beef cows in America — roughly 1.5 million head of cattle — are managed using their software. It's a prime example of deep domain expertise meeting modern technology to transform a traditional industry.
SewerAI: Automating America's Critical Infrastructure Inspections
The second portfolio company featured is SewerAI — and the problem it addresses is one that affects every city and municipality in the country. Kim describes the challenge plainly:
"The sewer infrastructure in the United States is going to hell in a hand basket. Pipes are at the end of their life, 40 or 50 years old. There's a multi-billion dollar business around inspection, figuring out which pipes are corroded. It's a manual process, a guy going in physically or sending in a camera, taking pictures and looking at them frame by frame."
SewerAI is changing that. By sending a camera down the pipe and using computer vision to automatically analyze the images — rather than having a person review footage frame by frame — SewerAI dramatically accelerates and improves the accuracy of sewer inspections. The technology addresses a critical need in America's aging infrastructure, and it does so in a space that few technology investors have been willing to enter.
"Nobody wants to be involved in automated analysis looking for cracks and faults in pipes that need replacement. We're the only venture capital firm investing in them."
A Philosophy Rooted in Customer Pain
Across every investment, Kim returns to the same fundamental question:
"I always come down to, is the company I'm backing solving a real customer pain point?"
It's a deceptively simple filter — but one that cuts through the noise of trend-chasing and hype cycles that often dominate venture capital conversations.
Bridging the Gap Between Silicon Valley and Middle America
Builders VC's commitment to these industries has taken Kim and his partners far beyond San Francisco. Ames, Iowa has become what Kim calls a "second home" — a place where the firm stays grounded in the real-world challenges facing American businesses and communities.
"San Francisco is a wonderful place to be to get an eye toward the future of tech, but it's a bubble. If you're spending time in Ames, Iowa, the problems that Middle America is facing are far different than what happens here. It has created resentment in some places toward tech. We view it as our role to bridge that gap."
That mission — to bring the best of modern technology to the industries and communities that need it most — is what makes Builders VC a distinctive voice in the venture landscape, and what makes their investment in SewerAI a meaningful vote of confidence in the future of smart infrastructure.
Read the full article on Forbes.