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# CivilGrid raises $26M to map what's buried underground
- URL: https://globalfeed.ai/en/civilgrid-raises-26m-to-map-whats-buried-underground/
- Published: 2026-08-27T21:52:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T00:18:49.000Z
- Description: Founded by former PG&E engineer Josh Mackanic, CivilGrid consolidates scattered underground utility data into one map and has closed a $26M Series A led by Spark Capital.
- Author: GlobalFeed Editor
- Tags: startup, infrastructure, funding, data, dil-en

**CivilGrid**, a startup founded in 2020 by Josh Mackanic after a 10-year engineering career at utility company PG&E, has raised a $26 million Series A. Spark Capital led the round, with participation from Afore, A\*, Ford Street Ventures and SNR. Energy Impact Partners, a fund whose limited partners include a number of utility companies, also invested.

Mackanic told TechCrunch the idea came from a job site: work stopped after crews found a pipe nobody knew about. Figuring out who owned it and what was inside took three days, a delay that cost $60,000.

## Nobody sees the full picture

According to Mackanic, even large utilities only have visibility into the electric and gas lines they own and operate. Sewage and water pipes belong to other companies, and so does the data on where they run. The source says this contributes to roughly 200,000 "utility strikes" in the United States each year.

CivilGrid gathers scattered data on utility assets, property ownership and environmental regulations and bundles it into what Mackanic calls "Google Maps for what's underground." It sells access to governments, civil engineering firms and utilities, including his former employer.

## A PG&E case study

Per the source, a case study run by PG&E identified $60 million in avoidable paving costs across 1,600 planned gas distribution projects using CivilGrid. Christine Cowsert of PG&E said in a statement that such tools help teams identify risks earlier and avoid unnecessary costs.

Mackanic said the next step is going beyond data: recommending where to place a pipe, listing the permits required, and eventually filing those permits automatically. He noted the idea of better underground visibility is not new, but that the hard part has been collecting, sorting and securing the data and building relationships with the parties willing to pay for it.

Full story: [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/27/this-former-pge-engineer-is-building-a-google-maps-for-the-underground/?ref=globalfeed.ai)