PALO ALTO — Buzz Solutions, an AI company that inspects and protects critical energy infrastructure, has closed a $5 million round of growth funding. GoPoint Ventures led the round, with additional participation from Blackhorn Ventures and MaC Venture Capital. The investment follows a period of significant acceleration in customer adoptions as utilities are demanding more efficient and accurate T&D infrastructure inspections and better substation security.
The global unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone market, is predicted to reach $101.1 billion by 2032. Within this market, the commercial drone use cases continue to grow, including for T&D asset inspection. However, with increased drone use for visual inspections and image capture, utilities must analyze and harvest actionable insights from thousands of images taken across hundreds of miles of infrastructure. Likewise, utilities require better substation surveillance and equipment condition assessment solutions via fixed cameras to prevent substation attacks, theft, and damage.
Buzz Solutions uses the power of AI to address these needs. The company has gained significant market traction with utilities that use its PowerAI platform for visual infrastructure inspections and predictive maintenance. The company enables field teams to identify anomalies and prioritize maintenance to reduce the likelihood of grid-sparked wildfires, forced shutdowns and power outages. At substations, utilities deploy PowerGUARD, Buzz’s AI solution for fixed camera systems providing 24/7 surveillance, equipment monitoring, condition assessments, and fire or smoke-related alerts – all in real time.
“We started with a mission to provide utilities with the most efficient and accurate way to inspect and safeguard the world’s power infrastructure,” said CEO Kaitlyn Albertoli. “Over seven years, we’ve collaborated with key leaders across utility operations, technology, and asset management, working to solve their most pressing grid modernization needs. These industry insights coupled with our deep AI expertise have underpinned our success and positioned Buzz as the market leader. This latest round of financing will fund our next growth phase and expansion into new use cases associated with inspecting and monitoring critical infrastructure.”
The investment brings the total raised to $10.7M with a previous round of $3.3M from 2022 and two $1.2M convertible notes in 2020 and in early 2023. Buzz plans to deploy the capital to scale both PowerAI and PowerGUARD offerings across utilities in the U.S. and internationally.
“Utilities are increasingly deploying AI to help tackle challenges related to safety and environmental sustainability in a cost efficient way.” said David Zusman, Managing Partner at GoPoint Ventures. “With the most accurate AI powered solutions on the market, Buzz is quickly becoming the power industry’s leading partner in infrastructure inspections and substation security. Buzz Solutions helps utilities conduct more efficient and accurate inspections, reduce the risk of infrastructure failure, and safeguard critical assets – all while saving millions of dollars annually.”
Buzz Solutions was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs Kaitlyn Albertoli and Vikhyat Chaudhry, two Stanford graduates that connected over a shared passion for environmental sustainability and technology innovation. Capitalizing on the large opportunity to help utility companies improve efficiencies and reduce risk, Buzz has rapidly become a leader in AI-powered visual inspections for T&D and substation infrastructure. With years of real visual data training its AI, Buzz’s technology has been proven in the field by the industry’s most demanding customers.
