Summary
We’re pleased to announce our investment in IND Technology, a Melbourne-headquartered grid-tech company pioneering early fault detection for transmission and distribution utilities to enhance network reliability and prevent bushfires. IND has built a global footprint with offices in Australia, the U.S., Canada, and Malaysia.
We’re joining IND’s first institutional capital raise, led by highly regarded international energy investors Energy Impact Partners and Angeleno Group.
The Challenge
Electricity grids are under strain. Ageing infrastructure, climate volatility, and rising bushfire risk are testing networks built for a different era. Since the birth of the modern grid, periodic, visual inspections have been the dominant safeguard. These are time-consuming, expensive, and inherently episodic, and they often miss fault conditions that develop between inspections, or are simply too subtle to be captured during inspections.
The stakes are real. In 2018, California’s Camp Fire caused 85 fatalities and more than US$16.5b in damage, ultimately driving the local electricity utility into bankruptcy and triggering litigation over inadequate vegetation management and ageing infrastructure [1]. In Australia, utilities face similar scrutiny. Recent incidents, such as the Wickepin–Narrogin bushfire in Western Australia and the Glenmore bushfire in Victoria, have intensified public and regulatory examination. When fault conditions evolve in the gaps between patrols, periodic inspection is not fit for purpose. Where is the solution?
Enter IND Technology
In the Camp Fire example, the California Public Utilities Commission identified one path forward: the utility was required to fund an Early Fault Detection (EFD) program [2]. The EFD technology provider is based in our backyard: Melbourne, Victoria.
IND offers a pragmatic fix: continuous, precise, early fault detection for overhead and underground lines. Its patented EFD system uses radio-frequency sensors and proprietary analytics to pinpoint emerging faults before they cause outages or fires. The result: lower operating and maintenance costs, fewer catastrophic events, avoided loss of life, and reduced bushfire-related greenhouse gas emissions.
IND counts several major utilities as customers, including AusNet Services, Powercor, Western Power, Endeavour Energy in Australia, Southern California Edison, PPL Electric and PG&E in the US, and Fortis Alberta and ATCO in Canada, with new installs also underway in Europe. IND was recognized on the Australian Financial Review’s Fast 100 list in 2024.
The Founders’ Story
IND was founded in 2013 by RMIT Professor Alan Wong, a leading expert in high-voltage electrical engineering. His deep expertise in insulation, partial discharge, and edge computing led to the invention of the EFD system. What began as a university spin-out has grown into a global commercial business. Prof. Wong bootstrapped IND from inception, expanding deployments worldwide and making it one of Australia’s most successful and influential climate-tech stories.
From left to right: IND Technology CEO & Founder (Alan Wong), COO (Andrew Walsh), and Chairman (Prof. Tony Marxsen)
Why We Invested
- First-mover in a new category: The EFD system addresses a critical and fast-growing gap: detecting impending electrical faults on transmission and distribution lines before they lead to bushfires or blackouts. The solution is distinct from traditional inspection or monitoring tools, positioning the company as pioneer in the proactive maintenance category.
- Growing demand for climate resilience and grid reliability use cases: With rising bushfire risk, ageing and less reliable grids, and mounting demands from the grid driven by widespread electrification, the need for continuous, predictive monitoring has never been stronger. IND’s value propositions align squarely with these structural tailwinds.
- The best-in-class team with global vision and execution capability: Prof. Alan Wong combines deep technical credibility with commercial ambition and operational discipline. The team has demonstrated the ability to develop, produce, deploy, and service a hardware-plus-analytics platform at global scale. Prof. Anthony Marxsen, former Chair of AEMO, has been part of the journey since 2016, playing pivotal roles in product strategy, relationships, and governance.
We’re thrilled to support the team as they raise their first external equity round and scale IND’s technology into its next phase of growth. For further details or any questions, please reach out to Kristin Vaughan.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018)
[2] https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/divisions/safety-policy-division/documents/final-resolution-spd19–adopting-corrective-actions-resulting-from-the-root-cause-analysis-relating.pdf
