Trendspek, the Sydney-based real asset modeling software startup, has raised $6.3 million in a Series A.

Real Estate Technology VC Taronga Ventures led the raise as a new investor backed by the VC arm of insurer IAG, Firemark Ventures.

The money is earmarked to grow the team to accelerate product development, expand its existing global reach and provide a high level of expert support to the customers who have been central to the company’s product development.

Trend bacon pioneered with his Precision Asset Intelligence (PAI) software is becoming the gold standard in asset management. The company creates 3D digital models of real assets for inspection and analysis that can be completed in hours instead of the days of traditional physical inspections.

The startup participated in Taronga’s RealTechX innovation program last year and raised $1.1 million in 2020 in a Seed round led by the Sydney Angels investment syndicate.

Co-founders Derek Feebrey, Fiona Church and Mitch Deam are former Qantas pilots who launched PAI in 2019 as a solution for what to do with the drone recording data they collected.

The software converts drone images of critical infrastructure that is difficult to inspect for maintenance, such as mobile towers, chimneys, warehouses and water towers, into 3D virtual digital models for inspection. It can map deterioration over time with subsequent overpasses to monitor the safety of buildings and towers.

Trend bacon counts CBRE, NationalGrid, PGIM Real Estate and Applus+ among its customer base, expanded to Europe and the UK in 2021, followed by the US this year

Feebrey, the company’s CEO, said the interactive 3D models created by PAI contain detail down to 1mm.

“The problem of deteriorating infrastructure and the increased risk and cost of managing these assets is one that is being felt globally and is driving a Digital Twin market that is expected to exceed $73 billion by 2027,” he said.

“Trendspek is working with property and infrastructure asset owners to provide assurance and control in this challenging environment.”

Firemark’s support demonstrates the strategic value of Trend bacon as a critical tool in risk management for the real wealth owners.

“We have an incredibly strong alignment with both investors,” Feebrey said.

“Like Trendspek, Taronga Ventures prioritizes a robust ESG approach to support its partners across various real asset sectors. Through the early introductions of Taronga to their partners such as PGIM Real Estate and CBRE, Trendspek has been able to successfully deliver projects and build great client relationships.”

Taronga Ventures co-founder and managing partner, Jonathan Hannam, said they were pleased with the company’s rapid growth as it charted success since the RealTechX program.

“Especially now that so many of our institutional partners are using their product. In addition to asset management, we also see groups such as PGIM Real Estate using Trendspek as part of their due diligence process for new acquisitions,” he said.

“Trendspek is changing the way asset owners approach risk assessment and asset management, and we are excited to support the team in making Precision Asset Intelligence a core component for global assets.”

Scott Gunther, general partner of IAG Firemark Ventures, said they were “very excited about the technology and business opportunity” the PAI software is creating.

“Trendspek was part of the Firemark Accelerator Program 2022, which helped identify how we could work together to transform the way we deliver insurance by helping property infrastructure owners better understand asset risk,” he said.

“We believe that our investment in Trendspek, alongside our other significant investments in the computer vision & imagery space, will deliver better risk assessments, enable proactive and targeted maintenance, and improve the claims experience for IAG’s commercial customers.”