GoKawiilEx-PG&E Engineer's Startup CivilGrid Raises $26M to Map Underground Utilities
Josh Mackanic, a former Pacific Gas and Electric engineer, founded CivilGrid in 2020 after experiencing costly delays caused by unknown buried pipes during excavation projects. The startup aggregates data on utility lines, property ownership, and environmental regulations into a unified underground mapping platform, and has now raised a $26 million Series A led by Spark Capital, with participation from Afore, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR, and Energy Impact Partners.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Roughly 200,000 utility strikes occur annually in the U.S. because companies lack visibility into infrastructure owned by others, leading to costly delays, safety risks, and project shutdowns like the $60,000 incident Mackanic described. Investment from Energy Impact Partners, backed by utility companies as limited partners, signals that the industry itself sees value in solving this fragmented data problem as infrastructure demands grow.
- CivilGrid consolidates fragmented underground utility data into a single mapping platform.
- The company raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital.
- Utility strikes cost time and money industry-wide, with about 200,000 incidents occurring each year in the U.S.
Bosch GMS 120 Digital Multi-Scanner — CivilGrid is trying to stop utility strikes at city scale; this handheld scanner is the homeowner-sized version of the same idea. The Bosch GMS 120 detects metal, rebar, and live wiring behind walls so you can drill with confidence instead of guessing. A smart thing to reach for before any renovation or mounting job.
See Bosch GMS 120 Digital Multi-Scanner on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: techcrunch.com — Sean O'Kane, 2026-08-27
Published there as: “This former PG&E engineer is building a ‘Google Maps for the underground’”
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