Torch Systems has secured $11.5 million in total financing to expand its AI-powered monitoring platform for utilities, renewable energy companies, municipalities and other operators of distributed outdoor infrastructure.
The financing includes $9.5 million in equity from Khosla Ventures, Abstract, Construct Capital and Starship Ventures and $2 million in venture debt from First Citizens Innovation Banking, formerly Silicon Valley Bank.
Torch plans to use the capital to accelerate manufacturing and deployment of its TerraNode sensing devices, grow its go-to-market and field operations teams and continue developing the Torch Intelligence Platform.
The company began as a wildfire-detection project and has since expanded its focus into what it calls outdoor asset intelligence.
Torch’s TerraNode is a self-contained, solar-powered device incorporating optical and thermal cameras along with acoustic, gas, air-quality and environmental sensors.
On-device edge AI analyzes information collected by the sensors.
Because TerraNodes do not require external electricity or wired networking, the devices can be installed in locations including solar farms, transmission corridors and other remote sites where traditional monitoring infrastructure can be expensive or impractical.
A single deployment can monitor conditions including fire risk, equipment overheating, unauthorized access, vegetation growth and air quality.
The Torch Intelligence Platform develops historical context around individual assets and locations, identifies normal operating patterns and alerts operators when meaningful deviations occur.
Hundreds of TerraNodes are now deployed across California, Oregon, New Mexico, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Torch said its systems have detected real-world fires at early stages in California, New Mexico and Oregon while also identifying equipment failures, security issues and other anomalies.
Dominion Energy is among the infrastructure operators using Torch, deploying the technology at solar sites to identify conditions including fire risks, panel misalignment, overheating and vegetation anomalies.
Torch was founded from technology CEO Vasya Tremsin began developing in 2018 as a high school student following major Northern California wildfires.
The project earned top honors in its category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair before developing into the company.
Torch is now preparing to expand from hundreds of deployed devices to thousands.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’ve invested extraordinary amounts of capital and ingenuity into teaching AI to understand the digital world, while much of the physical world that powers our lives still goes unwatched. Our belief is simple: critical outdoor infrastructure should be able to tell you what’s happening before a small problem becomes a major event. Fire detection was where we started. What we’ve learned from our customers is that fire is only one of dozens of things they need to know.”
“The field changed our understanding of what Torch could become. Customers kept asking us, ‘Can it detect this too?’ Overheating equipment. Intrusion. Air quality. Vegetation. The answer kept being yes. That’s when we realized the bigger problem wasn’t wildfire detection. The bigger problem was that outdoor infrastructure is largely a blind spot. Our goal is to change that.”
Vasya Tremsin, Co-Founder and CEO of Torch Systems
“Operators managing remote sites have no way to see what’s actually happening on the ground. Torch’s sensors read signals that cameras and satellites can’t detect.”
Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures
“Across a large solar and battery storage portfolio, it can be challenging to maintain continuous visibility into conditions at every site. Torch Systems gives us another way to identify a range of issues such as fire risks and vegetation anomalies and better understand what’s happening across our sites. That additional intelligence helps our teams focus attention where it’s needed and respond more efficiently.”
Chris Nee, Manager of Renewables at Dominion Energy
