Former Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) engineer Josh Mackanic founded CivilGrid in 2020 to address the lack of comprehensive visibility into underground utility infrastructure. Mackanic left PG&E after experiencing a costly delay caused by an unknown buried pipe, which led to a $60,000 expense and a three-day investigation to determine ownership and access rights. He recognized that despite PG&E’s extensive network, the company lacked knowledge about other utilities’ infrastructure, contributing to approximately 200,000 “utility strikes” annually.

CivilGrid aggregates disparate data on utility assets, property ownership, and environmental regulations, creating a platform described by Mackanic as “Google Maps for what’s underground.” The company sells access to this data to governments, civil engineering firms, and utilities, including his former employer, PG&E. A recent PG&E case study identified $60 million in avoidable paving costs across 1,600 planned gas distribution projects using CivilGrid. In August 2023, CivilGrid raised a $26 million Series A funding round led by Spark Capital, with participation from Afore, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR, and Energy Impact Partners. Mackanic aims to expand CivilGrid’s customer base and eventually automate additional permitting processes. He believes that while the concept of improving subterranean infrastructure visibility is not novel, CivilGrid uniquely addresses the challenges of data collection, organization, and partnership with paying customers. Source

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