wildfire-mitigation
(3)
Neara
Neara is a Sydney-founded software company that builds physics-enabled digital twins of utility networks. By combining LiDAR, satellite imagery, sensor data, AI and engineering-grade physics simulation, it creates geometrically accurate 3D replicas of power grids so utilities can model how their assets behave under real-world stress - wildfires, floods, storms, heat and rising demand. The platform lets operators find spare grid capacity, mitigate risk, plan maintenance and connect renewables faster, often replacing months of manual field inspection with analysis that runs in minutes. In February 2026 Neara raised an AUD $90 million Series D, reaching a roughly AUD $1.1 billion valuation to become one of Australia's newest unicorns.
E2 Consulting Engineers, Inc.
E2 Consulting Engineers is a multidisciplinary engineering and technical consulting firm founded in 1988 and headquartered in Emeryville, California. It delivers project management, engineering and design, construction management and inspection, environmental permitting and remediation, and federal support services to investor-owned utilities, government agencies, and infrastructure operators across North America. With more than 800 professionals in 11 U.S. offices, E2 supports grid modernization, wildfire mitigation, pipeline safety, and water infrastructure programs. In June 2026 it was acquired by EIP-backed Guardian Infrastructure Services.
Benton Armstrong
Benton Armstrong is CEO of Celerity Consulting, a San Francisco-based risk optimization firm helping electric and gas utilities convert complex data into actionable intelligence. With more than 30 years across PwC and Deloitte — where he led a 1,100-person global discovery team through 8x revenue growth — Armstrong now steers a 180-person consultancy at the intersection of wildfire mitigation, asset risk management, and utility data transformation.