Hades raised $1.9M in its oversubscribed seed round

Hades, an ETH Zurich spin-off providing automated inspection analysis of sewer pipelines, has secured seed funding of $1.9 million led by 360 Capital and co-invested by Urban Us and joined by two business angels.

Founded in 2019, Hades uses machine learning to automatically detect defects in sewer inspection videos and tells engineers when and how to repair them. The use of AI makes the process more objective and less error-prone. With this additional capital Hades, which is already active in different countries including Germany and the U.S., will grow its operations and thereby contribute to making cities across the world more sustainable and resilient.

Following a participation in MINI & Urban Us’ accelerator program URBAN-X, Hades was introduced to Nader Sabbaghian, Partner at 360 Capital. As part of the financing round, Mr. Sabbaghian, who led BravoSolution to an annual turnover of $100M, is joining the board of directors. Asked about Hades, he said: "Hades is uniquely positioned to transform the upkeep of urban sewer networks resulting in significant improvements to the management of one the world's most critical infrastructures. Leveraging the latest AI technologies, the company's innovative computer vision software delivers an automated, scalable and reliable means for sewage network monitoring and its resulting maintenance activities"

The investment is part of 360 Capital’s new fund, A+360, focused on early stage start-ups operating in sectors which include smart city and circular economy. A+360 fund’s cornerstone investor is A2A, the leading Italian multiutility company which provides integrated wastewater management.

Next to 360 Capital, Urban Us followed up their initial investment. Shaun Abrahamson, Managing Partner at Urban Us, stated: “Over the last year, Hades progressed rapidly from promising research at ETH Zurich to deliver fast, new, automated, insights about critical infrastructure. With new funding and experienced support from 360 Capital, Hades is one step closer to transforming infrastructure inspection in cities to enable improved maintenance and avoid costly accidents”

(Press release / SK)