ITpipes and Luminate Capital Partners Announce Strategic Growth Investment

The partnership accelerates ITpipes' product and AI development for the crews, engineers, and agencies who keep North America's wastewater and stormwater systems running.

SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ITpipes, the trusted leader in pipe inspection software for sewer and stormwater systems, today announced a strategic growth investment from Luminate Capital Partners. The investment will accelerate ITpipes' product and AI development — helping inspection crews work faster and more consistently, and giving the utilities, municipalities, and contractors who own these systems the reliable condition data they need to plan maintenance and to maximize the impact of their budgets.

Growing expectations require product innovation

Buried infrastructure has moved to the center of local budget and regulatory decisions. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave wastewater infrastructure a D+ in its 2025 Report Card, citing more than 1.87 million miles of collection system pipe and a roughly $69 billion annual capital investment gap. Utilities must assess more pipe and defend every dollar of spending — often with the same crews and budgets they had a decade ago — putting a premium on condition data that is accurate, complete, and defensible. More than 300 utilities, municipalities, and CCTV contractors use ITpipes to collect, manage, and act on that data, built on Esri ArcGIS and aligned with NASSCO PACP, MACP, and LACP standards.

"For fifteen years, utilities and contractors have trusted ITpipes with the condition data behind their rehabilitation and capital decisions — and that trust is the foundation our AI is built on. AiDetect works because it's trained on real inspection data and checked by NASSCO-certified experts, not because it's the newest thing on the market. Partnering with Luminate lets us build faster for the cities, counties, and contractors who count on us, with the same reliability that earned their trust," said Ned Bebawy, CEO of ITpipes.

AI has moved quickly through pipe inspection, from early defect-detection experiments to tools that now support certified coders on production inspections every day. ITpipes' AiDetect — shaped by more than fifteen years of understanding how inspections run and how defects are coded in the field, with every result reviewed by NASSCO-certified experts — delivers 97% defect-detection accuracy while cutting coding and QA time by at least 50%. This investment funds the next stage: building on that accuracy to make ITpipes the system of record for all underground condition data — where inspections, defect coding, and asset history come together to drive planning, prioritization, and capital decisions.

"ITpipes has earned something rare in this market: the trust of the utilities, municipalities, and contractors who depend on accurate inspection data every day. Ned and the team have paired that reputation with real product innovation, including AiDetect, and we're excited to partner with them to build the tools their customers need — reliable, easy to use, and grounded in how the work actually gets done," said Andrew Baldwin, Partner at Luminate Capital.

Lincoln International provided M&A advisory services to the shareholders of ITpipes and legal advice was provided by Holland & Knight.

Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisor to Luminate.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About ITpipes

ITpipes is a leading provider of pipe inspection software and AI coding solutions for water and wastewater utilities, municipalities, and contractors across the United States and Canada. Built on Esri ArcGIS and aligned with NASSCO PACP, MACP, and LACP standards, ITpipes helps agencies collect, manage, and act on condition data to keep critical infrastructure running. ITpipes is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Learn more at www.itpipes.com.

About Luminate Capital Partners

Luminate Capital Partners is an investment firm managing over $2 billion in assets with a focus on growth software companies. Luminate partners with management teams to drive growth through building innovative products that solve real customer problems. Luminate's portfolio of market leaders includes AbsenceSoft, Axonify, Conexiom, Adherent, Ease, FMX, MSI Data, StarCompliance, Suralink and Thought Industries. For more information, please visit www.luminatecapital.com.

Media Contacts

For ITpipes, Ashley Stuart, Director of Marketing, ITpipes
[email protected] | www.itpipes.com
For Luminate, Chris Tofalli, Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC
[email protected]

SOURCE Luminate Capital Partners