Torch Systems Raises $11.5 Million to Bring AI to the Physical Infrastructure the World Depends On

Khosla Ventures-backed company scales its outdoor asset intelligence platform, giving utilities, cities and commercial operators continuous visibility across distributed physical assets

LAFAYETTE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Torch Systems, an outdoor asset intelligence company bringing AI-powered monitoring to critical infrastructure, today announced $11.5 million in total funding as it scales a new approach to understanding what is happening across the physical world.

The recent financing includes $9.5 million in equity funding from Khosla Ventures, Abstract, Construct Capital and Starship Ventures, along with $2 million in venture debt financing from First Citizens Innovation Banking (formerly known as Silicon Valley Bank). Torch will use the capital to accelerate manufacturing and deployment of its TerraNode™ sensing devices, grow its go-to-market and field operations teams, and continue advancing its Torch Intelligence Platform for a rapidly expanding set of use cases.

The announcement comes as Torch reaches a more consequential milestone: moving from a wildfire detection concept into outdoor asset intelligence — an emerging category of technology designed to give operators continuous awareness of distributed outdoor infrastructure.

While billions of dollars have poured into AI systems that understand digital information, much of the physical infrastructure society depends on remains largely unmonitored. Utilities, renewable energy operators, municipalities and industrial companies frequently manage thousands of outdoor assets where traditional monitoring requires power, fiber, towers or multiple point solutions — or where problems are discovered only after someone sees them. Torch is building an intelligence layer for those environments.

“We've invested extraordinary amounts of capital and ingenuity into teaching AI to understand the digital world, while much of the physical world that powers our lives still goes unwatched,” said Vasya Tremsin, co-founder and CEO of Torch Systems. “Our belief is simple: critical outdoor infrastructure should be able to tell you what's happening before a small problem becomes a major event. Fire detection was where we started. What we've learned from our customers is that fire is only one of dozens of things they need to know.”

From fire detection to outdoor asset intelligence

Torch's technology combines the TerraNode™, a self-contained, solar-powered multi-sensor device, with the Torch Intelligence Platform, which analyzes data from individual sites and turns it into actionable alerts and operational intelligence.

Each TerraNode combines optical and thermal cameras with acoustic, gas, air-quality and environmental sensing, along with on-device edge AI. The compact devices require no external power or wired network connection and can be installed in minutes, enabling deployment in remote solar farms, transmission corridors, canyons and other environments that have traditionally been difficult or expensive to monitor.

That breadth of sensing allows a single Torch deployment to address multiple operational challenges, including fire risk, equipment overheating, security and access, vegetation growth, air quality and other anomalies. Rather than simply streaming sensor data, the Torch Intelligence Platform builds historical context for individual locations and assets, learns their normal operating patterns, and flags meaningful deviations. Events can also be correlated across multiple TerraNodes, while built-in event management, reporting and role-based alerting help operators move from detection to action.

From prototype to field deployment

Since the financing closed, Torch has moved from product development into commercial deployment. Hundreds of TerraNodes are now deployed across California, Oregon, New Mexico, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, serving utilities, renewable energy operators, municipalities and industrial customers. The company says TerraNodes have already detected numerous real-world fires at their earliest stages in California, New Mexico and Oregon, in addition to identifying a variety of equipment faults, security issues and other operational anomalies.

Torch’s investors see a much larger opportunity emerging as AI moves beyond software and into the physical world. By combining sensing, edge intelligence, hardware and software in infrastructure that can be deployed almost anywhere, Torch is building a new intelligence layer for physical assets that have historically been difficult to monitor.

“Operators managing remote sites have no way to see what’s actually happening on the ground. Torch’s sensors read signals that cameras and satellites can’t detect," said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures.

The company plans to use its new capital to increase manufacturing and field-deployment capacity, expand customer-facing teams, and build the operational infrastructure needed to scale from hundreds of deployed devices to thousands.

Built for the operators responsible for critical infrastructure

Torch is already working with infrastructure operators to apply the platform across a growing range of operational use cases. Dominion Energy is using Torch at solar sites to monitor for potential issues including fire, solar panel misalignment and overheating, and vegetation growth conditions that can otherwise be difficult to identify consistently across widely distributed assets.

“Across a large solar and battery storage portfolio, it can be challenging to maintain continuous visibility into conditions at every site,” said Chris Nee, Manager of Renewables, Dominion Energy. “Torch Systems gives us another way to identify a range of issues such as fire risks and vegetation anomalies and better understand what’s happening across our sites. That additional intelligence helps our teams focus attention where it’s needed and respond more efficiently.”

Torch is also deployed across municipal and commercial environments, including citywide fire-monitoring networks and industrial operations. While the assets and risks vary, the underlying challenge is the same: giving operators continuous intelligence across physical environments that are difficult to monitor at scale.

From a wildfire problem to a much bigger idea

Torch's story began in 2018, when Tremsin started developing an early version of the technology as a high school student after experiencing the devastating Northern California wildfires. What began as a science fair project earned top honors in its category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and ultimately became the starting point for Torch.

The original question was straightforward: Could technology spot the earliest signs of a wildfire before people could? But as the technology moved out of the lab and into real-world deployments, Torch began uncovering a much larger opportunity.

Customers weren't only asking Torch to watch for fire; they wanted to know when their equipment was overheating, when someone entered a restricted site, when vegetation was becoming a risk, when air quality changed or when something else wasn't operating as it should. The same sensing and intelligence infrastructure built to detect one potentially catastrophic event could give operators awareness of many different conditions across their outdoor assets.

That realization ultimately shaped Torch's evolution from a wildfire detection technology into the outdoor asset intelligence platform it is building today.

“The field changed our understanding of what Torch could become,” Tremsin said. “Customers kept asking us, ‘Can it detect this too?’ Overheating equipment. Intrusion. Air quality. Vegetation. The answer kept being yes. That's when we realized the bigger problem wasn't wildfire detection. The bigger problem was that outdoor infrastructure is largely a blind spot. Our goal is to change that.”

About Torch Systems

Torch Systems is an outdoor asset intelligence company building technology that helps utilities, renewable energy operators, municipalities and other critical infrastructure organizations understand what's happening across distributed outdoor assets. Its TerraNode™ combines multiple sensing technologies, edge AI, solar power and wireless connectivity in a compact device designed for rapid deployment without external power or network infrastructure. The Torch Intelligence Platform turns that field data into alerts, operational context and actionable intelligence across use cases including fire, equipment health, security, vegetation and environmental monitoring. Torch Systems is headquartered in Lafayette, California. To learn more, visit www.torchsystems.com.