Evansville-based startup Utiliz is looking to help municipalities prevent their water pipes from breaking.
Utiliz has developed an app that it says can predict which pipes are most likely to break by looking at multiple data points, including water pressure, installed dates and pipe material.
Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Jackson Bolek said that Utiliz improves utility efficiency.
“Utilities are spending a lot of money to replace and fix pipes that quite frankly, don’t need to be fixed yet,” Bolek said.
And, even companies that have collected pipe data may not know what to do with the information. That’s when Utiliz hopes to join the conversation.
Utiliz is doing a case study with Evansville Water and Sewer Utility to show how the app works.
Bolek got the idea for the app while interning at the Evansville utility. He said he hopes the company will continue to expand into other markets, such as natural gas lines.
“We definitely want to keep an eye on Indiana. We really think the market here is ripe for growth,” he said.
Utiliz received a $10,000 top prize in March from the Spring 2022 Crossroads Pitch Competition at The Mill in Bloomington. Bolek said that money will be spent on website design work.