Ensuring access to clean water, safe transportation, broadband, and reliable electricity depends heavily on well-maintained infrastructure. However, the American Society of Civil Engineers has rated the condition of U.S. infrastructure at a C-, indicating that substantial improvement is needed.
Mach9, a startup launched in 2021, aims to address this challenge by equipping infrastructure providers with more comprehensive information about the physical environment. Using artificial intelligence, Mach9 converts mobile lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) scans into 2D and 3D engineering models at a fraction of the traditional cost and time. This capability enables utility companies, engineering firms, and construction businesses to make faster, informed decisions, allocate resources efficiently for upgrades, and gain better insight into their assets.
The company's flagship software, Digital Surveyor, identifies over 20 types of infrastructure features, such as utility poles, traffic signals, and road signs. Traditionally, human operators manually identify these features, but Digital Surveyor automates much of this process. Notable infrastructure providers and engineering firms, including Michael Baker International, POWER Engineers, Langan, and Fibersmith, are among Mach9’s clients in the U.S. and Canada.
Mach9’s CEO and co-founder, Alexander Baikovitz, was inspired to enter this field while studying robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, where he participated in projects for the U.S. Department of Energy focused on decontaminating nuclear facilities. He noted that many challenges in robotics for these tasks actually stemmed from data gaps in surveying and mapping. Effective infrastructure management requires accurate data on asset location and condition from the outset.
As Baikovitz explains, “Infrastructure is evolving rapidly due to factors like aging, weather, and climate change. Addressing these challenges requires better data and up-to-date maps.”
Initially, Mach9 planned to build mobile mapping hardware with lidar and imaging payloads. However, after joining Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 cohort and raising $2.5 million, the team pivoted to focus on software that turns collected geospatial data into actionable insights—a need identified in discussions with potential clients.
Digital Surveyor enables operators to pinpoint every utility pole across extensive networks in minutes. Where it typically takes a person two to four days to map a mile manually, Digital Surveyor reduces this to about 10 minutes per mile for verification.
The software’s capabilities extend beyond basic identification, offering detailed information such as the angle of tilt for utility poles, which is crucial for rapid response following extreme weather events.
Recently, Mach9 closed a $12 million seed funding round led by Quiet Capital, with additional support from Overmatch Ventures and industry leaders like Cruise founder Kyle Vogt and former Autodesk CEO Omar Hanspal. With this funding, the company plans to expand its 14-person team and enhance Digital Surveyor, aiming to increase the number of identifiable infrastructure features from the current 20 to “hundreds and thousands” in the future.
