This Former PG&E Engineer is Developing a ‘Google Maps for Subsurface Utilities’

Josh Mackanic transitioned from a decade-long engineering career at Pacific Gas and Electric, driven by curiosity about what the utility company might not know about its underground infrastructure.

“There was a job that was halted due to a pipe in the excavation that we weren’t notified about. Fortunately, we discovered it before any damage occurred,” he told TechCrunch. “But then it turned into a three-day quest of asking: ‘Whose pipe is this? Can we access it? What’s inside?’”

Mackanic ultimately got the information he required, but the process took three days, resulting in a delay that cost $60,000.

While PG&E ranks among the largest utility providers in the U.S., it (like many similar companies) only maintains visibility over its vast network of electric and gas lines. Water and sewage pipes are managed by separate entities, meaning the precise data on their locations is also held by those companies. This leads to around 200,000 incidents of “utility strikes” annually.

To tackle this issue, Mackanic founded a startup named CivilGrid in 2020. The company gathers diverse data related to utility assets, property ownership, and environmental regulations, pooling it into what Mackanic jokingly refers to as “Google Maps for what’s underground.” It then provides access to this data for municipalities, civil engineering firms, and utilities, including PG&E.

Mackanic has successfully raised $26 million in Series A funding to grow CivilGrid into a more substantial enterprise. The funding round was spearheaded by Spark Capital, with further contributions from early-stage funds Afore, A*, Ford Street Ventures, and SNR. CivilGrid also secured investment from Energy Impact Partners, a fund that features numerous utility companies as limited partners, which Mackanic noted as a significant validation from the industry.

“California’s energy demands are rapidly rising, and our customers expect us to provide the necessary infrastructure in a safe, reliable, and affordable manner,” stated Christine Cowsert, senior vice president of enterprise business and technology modernization at PG&E. “This requires smarter initial planning through tools like CivilGrid, which help our teams identify risks earlier, construct more efficiently, and avoid unnecessary costs while prioritizing safety.”

A case study conducted by PG&E has already identified $60 million in avoidable paving costs across 1,600 planned gas distribution projects by implementing CivilGrid. Mackanic expressed his aspiration to onboard additional clients and ultimately start addressing other bureaucratic hurdles that complicate construction in the U.S.

“Currently, we’re providing engineers with the data they need to make informed decisions” regarding infrastructure placement, he shared with TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. Yet, “once I’ve outlined the constraints for them, it’s relatively easy for me to recommend, ‘Well, I’d suggest placing the pipe here, and by the way, here are the permits needed to proceed with construction on this pipe. Would you like me to file those permits? If so, I’ll handle that.’”

Mackanic indicated there is “much more” that CivilGrid could begin automating “now that we’ve built this dataset and captured the primary users making early decisions about future constructions.”

Enhancing visibility into the nation’s underground infrastructure isn’t a novel idea, Mackanic told TechCrunch. However, he emphasized that no one has effectively gathered, organized, and secured the data while forming partnerships with entities most likely to purchase that information.

“One of the primary reasons I left PG&E to create CivilGrid was my belief that this issue could be better addressed externally rather than from within, not due to a lack of awareness or interest in resolving it,” he noted. “Utilities tend to operate quite lean, don’t they? No one wants to spend more on gas than necessary.”

Like many children, Mackanic spent a considerable amount of his youth dreaming of launching rockets into space. However, despite earning a degree in mechanical engineering, he never imagined he would be collaborating with utility companies on underground issues.

“I used to think these places were dull,” he reminisced.

Yet, his stint at PG&E enlightened him to the importance of utility work — ensuring that people can simply flip a switch or brew coffee daily without worrying about potential failures.

“Regrettably, we often fail to highlight the incredible work they perform each day,” he commented.