Transect, a B2B SaaS company that partners with energy and other industries to identify and plan for environmental risk, announced it has successfully secured venture capital funding to accelerate growth.

Blue Bear Capital led the round alongside existing investors, including Holt Ventures. Gary Horn, CEO of Horn Solutions, Inc. and return investor, joins the Transect founding team and Vaughn Blake, a partner at Blue Bear Capital, on the board.

"Primary energy consumption is reaching record highs and the need for energy and transportation infrastructure is critical, but unforeseen environmental hurdles can really frustrate progress," said Robin Laine, CEO of Transect. "Our strategic partnership with Blue Bear Capital, an expert investor in the energy and technology markets, will accelerate growth, open us to new customer relationships, and expand our technical, development, and sales teams."

Navigating environmental regulations is complicated, especially for oil and gas, renewable, and transmission companies, which have current and prospective assets across the nation. Just a few of the many of the challenges that businesses face include:

Identifying endangered species habitat,
Minimizing wetlands impacts and planning for setbacks,
Requirements around public land ownership, and
Navigating federal and local permit requirements.
Dealing with these challenges must be done responsibly, but they can slow acquisition, development, and maintenance of valuable infrastructure. Transect provides an online tool that identifies these and other environmental challenges, pinpoints the relevant regulations and permits, and provides site-specific insight on recommendations and timelines to make informed project decisions. Existing customers include several of the country's largest pipeline and renewable energy infrastructure companies, including Plains All American Pipeline, GE Renewable Energy, and Origis Energy.

Considering the many infrastructure projects proposed by President Trump, like the U.S.-Mexico border wall or his recent $2 trillion infrastructure plan, as well as ongoing uncertainty from regulatory rollbacks, it is more important than ever for the public to have easy access to the best available information about environmental issues. "We are all spending more time working from home right now because of COVID-19. With Transect, businesses can find answers in minutes, from anywhere," explains Laine.

"Our firm is thrilled to support Transect as they leverage data and automation software to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase accuracy for energy companies navigating the many environmental workstreams their projects require," said Blake of Blue Bear Capital. "The team's experience and insight are second-to-none and it's a privilege to support a company that enables the responsible development of our natural resources."

The funding round coincides with the launch of Transect Vision, a prospecting tool that helps Transect users find the perfect project site.

About Transect

Founded in San Antonio in 2016, Transect provides solutions for environmental risk for renewable energy, oil and gas, transportation, and real estate customers. The Transect team has over 25 years of experience managing environmental compliance and permitting built into the technology. To learn more about Transect, visit www.transect.com.

About Blue Bear Capital

Blue Bear is a venture capital and growth equity firm driving digital technologies into multibillion-dollar verticals across the energy industry. The team comes together from leading energy private equity firms and features technology expertise from the tech startup world alongside operational leadership from the NASA astronaut corps. Blue Bear's portfolio covers AI, IoT, and cybersecurity technologies, all deployed with leading enterprise customers as they improve the economics of wind, solar, and storage while driving efficiencies across the energy industry. For additional information, visit www.bluebearcap.com and @BlueBearCap.