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Published Jun 05, 2026

Emerald Realizes Successful Exit from SewerAI

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Zurich, Switzerland – June 9, 2026 – Emerald Technology Ventures (“Emerald”), a global venture capital firm focused on industrial innovation, has announced the successful exit of its investment in SewerAI, the AI-powered platform transforming how utilities and infrastructure operators inspect, assess, and rehabilitate underground infrastructure.

The announcement follows SewerAI’s recently disclosed strategic investment led by JMI Equity, marking a major milestone in the company’s growth and the increasing adoption of AI-driven infrastructure intelligence across North America. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Emerald first invested in SewerAI in 2022, recognizing the company’s potential to modernize one of the world’s most overlooked yet essential infrastructure systems. Since then, SewerAI has grown into an infrastructure leader, helping more than 2,000 cities and infrastructure organizations manage aging sewer networks more efficiently through AI-powered inspection, risk assessment, and rehabilitation planning.

As municipalities across North America confront aging underground infrastructure, labor shortages, rising regulatory pressure, and growing climate resilience demands, SewerAI’s platform has enabled utilities and engineering firms to transition from manual, fragmented workflows to faster, data-driven infrastructure management at scale.

“With two decades of backing digital innovation in pipe and sewer infrastructure, SewerAI stood out as a company capable of redefining how critical assets are managed,” said Dr. Helge Daebel, Partner at Emerald and exiting SewerAI board member. “Matt, Billy, and the entire team combined deep infrastructure expertise with AI long before the market fully appreciated how transformative that combination would become. We’re convinced the partnership with the new investors will bring SewerAI to new levels of category-defining success.”

The investment exemplifies Emerald’s strategy of identifying and scaling breakthrough technologies that strengthen industrial productivity, resource efficiency, and infrastructure resilience. SewerAI represents a new generation of AI-enabled industrial software companies addressing large, underserved infrastructure markets with measurable operational and societal impact.


More on water at Emerald:

Water & Wastewater

Emerald Global Water Fund II reaches €100 million with addition of Temasek and Grundfos Foundation

Words of Wisdom: Water Innovation, Corporate Partnerships, and Emerging Technologies

About Emerald Technology Ventures

Emerald is a globally recognized venture capital firm, founded in 2000, that manages and advises assets of over €1.3 billion from its offices in Zurich, Toronto and Singapore. The firm invests in start-ups that tackle big challenges in climate change and sustainability, with four current funds, hundreds of venture transactions and six third-party investment mandates, including loan guarantees to over 100 start-ups.

This is Emerald.

Bold Ideas. Bright Future. www.emerald.vc

CONTACT FOR EMERALD:
info@emerald.vc