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The infrastructure we rely on every day is spread across thousands of miles and countless physical assets. Power lines, solar farms, industrial sites and city infrastructure are everywhere. But operators often have surprisingly little visibility into what is actually happening on the ground.
A majority of this infrastructure is still monitored through regular inspections, cameras, individual sensors or people physically going out to check on a site. In remote areas, even basic monitoring can be difficult and expensive because it requires power, connectivity and significant installation. In many cases, problems are not discovered until someone sees them.
Torch Systems is changing that. What started with wildfire detection has grown into something much bigger: a platform that gives operators continuous visibility across distributed physical infrastructure, from fire risk and equipment issues to security, vegetation and environmental conditions.
Today, Torch announced $11.5 million in total funding to scale its outdoor asset intelligence platform. We’re proud to have co-led the round alongside Khosla Ventures, Abstract and Starship Ventures. Torch is making it possible to understand what is happening across outdoor assets that have historically been difficult and expensive to monitor.
How it Works
Torch combines its TerraNode, a self contained, solar powered sensing device, with the Torch Intelligence Platform, which turns information from the physical world into useful alerts and operational intelligence.
Each TerraNode brings together optical and thermal cameras with acoustic, gas, air quality and environmental sensing, along with AI that runs on the device itself. Because TerraNodes do not need external power or a wired network connection, they can be installed quickly in places like solar farms, transmission corridors, canyons and other remote environments that have traditionally been difficult or expensive to monitor.
What got us excited about Torch was how much a single deployment could see.The same system can monitor for fire risk, equipment overheating, security and access issues, vegetation growth, changes in air quality and other anomalies. Over time, Torch builds historical context around individual locations and assets, learns what normal looks like and flags meaningful changes.
How it Started
CEO and co-founder Vasya Tremsin began developing the technology as a high school student after experiencing Northern California’s devastating wildfires. He wanted to know whether technology could detect a fire before people could.
But once Torch moved into the field, customers began asking what else it could see: overheating equipment, vegetation risk, unauthorized access and changes in air quality. The opportunity was much bigger than wildfire detection. Operators needed a better way to understand what was happening across their assets and outdoor infrastructure..
Today, hundreds of TerraNodes are deployed across six states, working with utilities, renewable energy operators, municipalities and industrial customers. They have already detected early stage fires, equipment faults, security issues and other operational anomalies. Dominion Energy is also using Torch at solar sites to monitor fire risk, overheating, solar panel misalignment and vegetation growth.
At Construct, we believe some of AI’s biggest opportunities will come from bringing intelligence into the physical world. Torch stood out because it gives operators a better way to understand what is happening across critical outdoor infrastructure, combining sensing, hardware and software in one platform.
We’re excited to continue supporting Vasya and the Torch team as they build the intelligence layer for the physical world.