Validere raises $7M in funding to bring IoT and artificial intelligence to Oil & Gas

The financing round for the Y-Combinator backed oil and gas startup was led by Sallyport Investments

TORONTO, Oct. 31, 2018 /CNW/ - Validere, a venture-backed oil and gas IoT and artificial intelligence platform has raised $7 million in seed funding to transform oil and gas trading and logistics through reliable data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) insights. The round included lead investor, Sallyport Investments, alongside Y Combinator, Real Ventures, Moment Ventures, and ZhenFund . The new round of funding will fuel Validere's US expansion and further the development of Validere's new AI-powered blending, logistics, and trading optimization platform.

Oil and gas companies currently use unreliable product quality data to make critical operational decisions. To address this problem, Validere is using Internet of Things (IoT) to radically improve confidence in product quality and AI predictive insights to guide optimal blending, logistics, and trading decisions. This optimization helps oil and gas companies get up to $9 more out of a barrel.

"More than $2T worth of crude oil is traded annually. As oil constantly changes hands, batches mix together irreversibly changing the product's quality. The industry largely bases important operational decisions on poor quality data. Our platform not only informs product quality reliably and in real time, but it also uses AI to help oil and gas companies optimize product movement," said Ian Burgess, Validere's co-founder and CTO.

Doug Foshee, former CEO of El Paso Corporation and current owner of Sallyport Investments, added that "quality analytics represents a massive opportunity to push the industry forward. Validere's strong cross-functional team, proprietary AI platform, and deep understanding of the industry uniquely positions them to add tremendous value to midstream and upstream businesses."

Validere's funding announcement comes on the heels of a breakthrough year. The company successfully completed IoT and AI platform deployments with large Canadian oil and gas clients and recently expanded into the US market by opening a Houston office. Validere was also recently named one of Canada's top 20 most innovative tech companies by CIX (The Canadian Innovation Exchange).

ABOUT VALIDERE
Validere's AI & IoT platform is empowering oil & gas organizations to optimize critical blending, logistics, and trading decisions. Validere was founded in 2015 at Harvard by entrepreneurs who recognized the enormous opportunity to bring data transparency and innovation to oil & gas. The company graduated from San Francisco's Y-Combinator and Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab accelerators in 2016. For more information, visit validere.com

ABOUT SALLYPORT INVESTMENTS
Sallyport Investments was founded by Doug Foshee in 2012 to provide capital and leadership to companies in the Upstream, Midstream and Service Sectors of the Energy Industry. Sallyport is also heavily involved in philanthropy, supporting causes like education, veteran support, homelessness, and more. For more information, visit sallyport.net

SOURCE Validere Technologies Inc.