Redzone Robotics Inc. has received a $25 million investment from ABS Capital Partners Inc. The Lawrenceville-based robotic manufacturer has plans to use the investment from the Baltimore-based growth equity firm to expand the company.
This expansion would involve new product development, hiring more personnel and establishing its first overseas office as per the vice president of sales and marketing, Ken Wolf. Mr Wolf said that every city in the world was a potential customer of the company.
The privately owned company has not made its revenue figures public. It currently employs 70 people, which includes 10 in the San Ramone-based Californian office. It was founded in 1987 as a spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University that manufactured robots to inspect and take video footage of sewer pipes. This allows customers to make informed decisions about the maintenance of their sewer system.
RedZone has clients in North America and through partnerships in 200 more countries including in the Middle East, Singapore and the Pacific Rim. Close to 200 municipalities in the world use the RedZone system.
The robotic inspection system could come in handy when the Environment Protection Agency says that the United States will need to invest close to $150 billion over the next two decades to maintain the aging wastewater infrastructure in the country.
Mr Wolf said that it was critical infrastructure, and it was abundant, but it was out of sight and out of mind. He also mentioned that the last investment made into the company came from Smithfield Trust Co. and Innovation Works but he declined to reveal any details.
CEO Eric Close said that most municipalities and wastewater agencies do not have the funding required to resolve all of their infrastructure problems. It was critical that they have a good complete understanding of the system so as to make fact-based decisions when allocating constrained capital and operating dollars in their quest to provide services and comply with regulatory demands. The company was seeing municipalities save money and really benefit from their cutting-edge solutions that enable them to proactively manage their wastewater infrastructure.