The Sydney software company building a physics-accurate 3D twin of the power grid - so utilities can test reality before reality tests them.
Most software that claims to "digitize" infrastructure produces a pretty picture - a 3D render you can spin around but not trust. Neara set out to build something harder: a digital twin that obeys physics. In a Neara model, conductors sag with heat, poles carry load, and floodwater rises to the correct elevation. When the model breaks, it breaks where the real network would. That distinction, dry as it sounds, is why close to 90% of Australia's network utilities and a growing roster of overseas operators now run their grids through it.
Founded in Sydney in 2016 by former Google software engineer Daniel Danilatos alongside Karamvir Singh and Jack Curtis, Neara began life as a humble line-design tool called "Power Lines Pro." A decade later it models roughly 15 million assets across more than three million kilometers of network on four continents - and in February 2026 it raised an AUD $90 million Series D that pushed its valuation to about AUD $1.1 billion, making it one of Australia's newest unicorns.
Neara ingests LiDAR scans, satellite imagery and sensor data, then uses AI and machine learning to reconstruct a network as a geometrically accurate 3D model. On top of that geometry it runs asset-level, engineering-grade physics. The result is a working replica an engineer can interrogate: How much more load can this line carry on a 42-degree day? Which spans will a one-in-fifty-year flood reach? Where is a tree close enough to a conductor to start a fire?
The company's models are trained on over a million miles of diverse network territory, which is what lets them resolve the small elevation differences that decide whether a flood forecast is useful or useless.
The electricity grid is being squeezed from several directions at once: AI data centers and electrification are driving demand that fifty-year-old infrastructure was never designed for, while wildfires, floods and storms grow more frequent and severe. Traditionally, understanding a network meant sending crews to walk it - slow, expensive and, in fire and flood zones, dangerous.
"We're allowing utilities to stay a step ahead of extreme weather by understanding exactly how it will affect their network."
Jack Curtis, Co-founderFIGURES REPORTED BY NEARA AND CUSTOMER SA POWER NETWORKS. APPROXIMATE.
Automatically flags vegetation and clearance-driven fire risk across the network and routes inspectors to the highest-risk spans - the workflow behind Neara's Southern California Edison partnership.
Models how floods, hurricanes, snow and ice will hit the network, using precise elevation data to prioritize response and speed restoration.
Surfaces underutilized grid capacity so utilities can connect more solar, wind and load without unnecessary rebuilds - accelerating the energy transition.
Models pole loading, conductor clash and asset health to support proactive maintenance and replacement planning.
Engineering-grade design and analysis for distribution and transmission projects, helping utilities build faster and with fewer surprises.
Runs scenario after scenario against a real model of the grid, so operators know where it will hold and where it won't.
Neara's customers are electric utilities and transmission-and-distribution operators. It dominates its home market - working with close to 90% of Australia's network utilities - and has expanded across the US, UK, Ireland and Greece.
Rivals in geospatial and grid analytics - from Bentley Systems and AiDash to Overstory, Sharper Shape and Unleash live - often center on imagery, inspection or visualization. Neara's wedge is the engineering layer underneath: an asset-level physics engine that turns a static scan into a model you can actually load-test.
That is why a utility can replace weeks of field walking with a simulation, and why the same twin serves wildfire, flood, capacity and design teams instead of one narrow use case.
When flooding hit the River Murray in 2022-2023, SA Power Networks faced a network partly underwater and a recovery estimated in weeks. Using Neara, the utility analyzed roughly 21,000 power line spans in about 15 minutes - work that would have taken months on foot - and restored power in around five days rather than an estimated three. It is the clearest illustration of what an accurate model buys you: not just speed, but the confidence to send crews to the right places.
"The increasing frequency and severity of severe weather motivates our product development more than any one event."
Jack Curtis, Co-founderNeara sells its cloud platform to utilities and infrastructure owners, typically through multi-year subscriptions, with services to onboard network data and stand up each digital twin. The value proposition is concrete: consolidating fragmented inspection and engineering workflows into one model, which the company says can deliver eight- and nine-figure savings for large operators.
Daniel Danilatos - Founder & CEO. A former Google software engineer whose frustration with clunky line-design tools produced "Power Lines Pro," the seed of Neara.
Karamvir Singh - Co-founder & Chief Product Officer, steering how the physics and product come together.
Jack Curtis - Co-founder & Chief Commercial and Operations Officer, leading the company's go-to-market with utilities worldwide.
The February 2026 Series D was led by TCV, with returning backers Partners Group, EQT, Square Peg Capital and Skip Capital. Earlier rounds drew Square Peg, Skip Capital and Prosus Ventures. The round valued Neara at roughly AUD $1.1 billion.
Danilatos, Singh and Curtis build on the "Power Lines Pro" line-design tool to start a network digital-twin company.
Neara begins selling its physics-enabled platform to utilities.
Square Peg Capital and Skip Capital back the platform's expansion.
A multi-year deal targets wildfire risk mitigation and vegetation management.
Prosus Ventures joins as extreme-weather use cases drive international growth.
TCV leads a round valuing Neara near AUD $1.1 billion.
Neara occupies a specific and increasingly crowded corner of climate-infrastructure software: the layer that helps existing grids do more without being rebuilt. As renewables need connecting, data centers need feeding, and weather keeps testing old assets, the constraint is rarely a shortage of ambition - it is a shortage of accurate information about what the network can actually take.
That is the gap Neara fills. Its engineering-grade twin lets planning, resilience, wildfire and design teams work from one shared model of reality. For investors, that breadth is the appeal: not a single feature, but a platform positioned under the whole energy transition. For utilities, the pitch is simpler - understand the grid you have before you spend to change it.
Neara builds physics-enabled digital twins of utility networks - geometrically accurate 3D models of power grids that let operators simulate how their assets behave under wildfires, floods, storms and rising demand, then plan design, maintenance and risk mitigation in software.
Neara was founded in Sydney in 2016 by Daniel Danilatos (Founder & CEO, a former Google engineer), Karamvir Singh (Chief Product Officer) and Jack Curtis (Chief Commercial and Operations Officer).
Neara has raised roughly AUD $180 million to date, including an AUD $90 million Series D in February 2026 led by TCV, reaching a valuation of about AUD $1.1 billion and unicorn status.
Electric utilities and network operators. Neara works with close to 90% of Australia's network utilities and international operators including Southern California Edison, CenterPoint Energy, ESB Networks, Scottish Power and Hedno, modeling around 15 million assets across four continents.
Its twins are physics-enabled and engineering-grade - conductors sag, poles load and floodwater rises to the correct elevation - so the model reflects how the real grid would actually behave and fail, rather than being a static 3D visualization.