Thread, a startup dedicated to developing a robotics platform for gathering inspection data in the utilities sector, has just revealed the successful closure of a Series A funding round that raised $15 million. This funding effort was led by Badlands Capital, with notable participation from Minnkota Power Cooperative, Generational Partners, Rosecliff Ventures, Excell Partners, Homegrown Capital, and Kevin O’Leary’s Wonder Fund North Dakota.
Thread’s inception dates back several years when Joshua Riedy co-founded the company alongside Jim Higgins, an aviator, and Travis Desell, a computer scientist. Their journey began at the University of North Dakota, where they initially collaborated on software for FedEx. Inspired by this experience, they decided to shift their focus towards digitizing and modernizing energy assets, such as wind turbines.
The trio started working with Xcel Energy, a regional investor-owned utility, on its digital transformation endeavors. With initial funding from Microsoft’s TechSpark program, Thread was launched, becoming only the second North Dakota company to reach a Series A round.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vulnerabilities in supply chains and the industry’s reliance on third-party service providers for asset inspection and monitoring. Thread’s mission is to address this challenge by offering a self-contained device equipped with an onboard processor, AI algorithms, and backend management software. This device autonomously collects data from various energy assets, including oil, wind, gas, solar, power transmission, and distribution, by allowing customers to deploy and control drones and robots for asset monitoring.
Thread provides energy and utility operators with a suite of integrations that extract real-time asset data from their existing software systems, along with templated data pipelines for predictable and manageable data workflows. This empowers C-suite leaders to gain comprehensive insights into asset performance and maintenance strategies to manage financial and reputational risks.
Thread faces competition from various drone-based solutions for inspecting energy utility assets, including traditional manual inspection providers, drone service providers, and autonomous drone-based asset inspection specialists.
Despite this competition, Thread has already secured several customers, including Xcel Energy, Constellation Energy, and Otter Tail Power, and has formed partnerships with asset protection companies like Mistras Group. Additionally, Thread is working with the U.S. Air Force on a $1.2 million contract to enhance security at Grand Forks Air Force Base.
Thread plans to utilize the proceeds from its Series A funding to recruit technical talent and launch its product for power line inspection on highways. The company also intends to invest in business development efforts, including scaling its sales team and expanding its workforce, which currently comprises 50 full-time employees.
