After a decade at Pacific Gas and Electric, Josh Mackanic saw a recurring challenge in utility work: teams often lacked a clear view of what lay beneath streets and construction sites. A single unknown pipe could stall a project, trigger days of coordination, and add major costs.
That insight led him to found CivilGrid in 2020, a startup building a digital layer for underground infrastructure. The platform combines utility asset records, property data, and environmental rules into one system that helps engineers, utilities, and public agencies plan projects with greater precision.
The company has now raised $26 million in Series A funding, led by Spark Capital, with participation from Afore, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR, and Energy Impact Partners. The new capital is intended to expand CivilGrid's reach and deepen its data capabilities.
PG&E has already used the platform in a case study that found $60 million in avoidable paving costs across 1,600 planned gas distribution projects. For utilities and engineering teams, that kind of visibility can support safer planning, faster decisions, and more efficient construction workflows.
Mackanic says the long-term vision goes beyond mapping. As CivilGrid's dataset grows, the company aims to help automate early-stage planning tasks, including permit guidance and construction preparation. In that sense, the startup is not just organizing underground data -- it is helping redefine how infrastructure gets designed from the start.
As cities modernize and infrastructure demands increase, tools like CivilGrid could shape a future where planning is faster, smarter, and more connected.
