Boulder-based Divirod recently raised a round of venture capital funding for its real-time flood and water risk management platform.
Divirod forecasts and measures everything water-related to manage and predict risks. Its data is used by businesses, insurers and government entities to conserve resources and protect properties.
The startup is calling the recent $3.6 million raise a bridge round between its $2 million seed round raised last year and a future Series A round. Divirod has raised $7.8 million since its founding in 2016.
The bridge round was co-led by venture capital firms Thin Line Capital and TDK Ventures and Australia-based civil engineering company GHD.
"Water is very important," Divirod CEO and co-founder Javier Marti said in a video on the company's website. "We need to make sure that we understand how much water we're going to have going forward. ... In a world which is changing and the climate is shifting, our water is putting us at risk at many different locations. We need to understand much better how to deal with those things, and for me, that's key going forward."
Divirod digitizes data about water — typically difficult to access and gather — by using satellites in space and sensors. The sensors are placed throughout a city or region and gather signals from the satellites that are then decoded using machine learning algorithms. This provides "precision accuracy" data on water, snow, vegetation and soil moisture percentage, which is then available on a phone or computer, Divirod co-founder Adam Wilson said in the video. (Wilson left the company in June, according to his LinkedIn.)
The startup also offers a flood early warning and monitoring tool that continuously checks locations and sends alerts to users about impending floods.
"The vast economic and social impact of water-related disasters, such as floods, storms and droughts, mean new technologies are essential to reduce the impact on millions of people and their communities globally," Phil Bradley, GHD's executive general manager of strategic investments, said in a statement. "Divirod's approach is very different and enables the acquisition and analysis of accurate data which facilitates better decisions earlier, to increase the resiliency of business and communities."
Divirod will use its bridge round to increase its sales and marketing efforts and grow its team. The startup has added six employees to its team within the last month, including a chief product officer, data scientists, software engineers and enterprise sales executives.
Marti told Colorado Inno in an email that Divirod has more than 13 full-time employees and three contractors.
With this capital raise, Divirod joins a growing list of Colorado-based companies raising bridge or extension rounds rather than moving up to Series A or B rounds. This is often done to keep valuations flat, something more companies are opting to do given a national slowdown in venture capital funding and global instability.
