Nice to hear news from Australian startups. It reminds me of my connection a few months ago with Brittany Fox of Nevam—I am still looking forward to hearing her story. Seeing Australian founders like Dan Danilatos, Karamvir Singh, and Jack Curtis execute at this level on the global stage is a strong signal for the region's deep tech ecosystem.
The News: Neara Becomes a Unicorn
Neara, a Sydney-based infrastructure modeling company, has secured $63 million USD (AUD $90 million) in Series D funding, valuing the company at AUD $1.1 billion. The round was led by TCV, a firm known for backing category-defining platforms like Netflix and Spotify. Existing investors EQT, Square Peg Capital, and Skip Capital also participated (Hoyle; Wheatley).
This is not just another SaaS funding round. It represents a critical pivot in how utilities are addressing the collision of two massive forces: the exponential demand for power from AI data centers and the physical fragility of grids due to climate change.
The Strategic Friction
Keisuke Sadamori, Director of Energy Markets and Security at the IEA, framed the urgency perfectly: "Global electricity demand is growing much more strongly than it did over the past decade... Meeting this demand will require annual investment in grids to rise by 50% by 2030" (Sadamori).
Strategic Analysis: Closing "The Physics Gap"
For the last century, the utility strategy was simple: if you need more capacity, you build more lines. That model is broken. Permitting delays, material costs, and labor shortages make "building our way out" impossible in the timeframe required by the AI boom.
Neara's value proposition is what I call Closing the Physics Gap.
Utilities often run their grids conservatively because they lack precise data on physical limits—sag, wind load, and thermal expansion. They might run a line at 60% capacity because they fear hitting 100%. Neara uses a "physics-enabled digital twin" to model the exact physical behavior of every span and pole. This allows utilities to safely run existing lines at 80% or 90% capacity, effectively creating "virtual infrastructure" without laying a single new cable.
Jack Curtis, Neara's co-founder, noted that the funding was accelerated by the "recent frenzy to build data centers to power artificial-intelligence boom" (Hoyle). The market is realizing that software is the only way to bridge the gap between AI's energy hunger and the grid's physical reality.
The Broader Pattern: The Death of Static Maps
This shift from static documentation to dynamic modeling appears to be a broader trend in the Australian tech ecosystem. It parallels the work of founders like Brittany Fox at Nevam. While Neara is solving the "Physics Gap" for utilities by replacing static grid maps with living physics models, Nevam is addressing the "Empathy Gap" in Customer Experience by replacing static journey maps with living data. Both companies are essentially declaring the death of the static artifact. Whether that map represents a power line sagging under heat or a customer churning due to friction, the answer is the same: the static map on the wall is dangerous because it ignores the changing reality of the environment.
The Ecosystem View: Deep Tech "Down Under"
There is a palpable shift occurring in the Australian startup landscape. For years, the narrative was dominated by design and collaboration tools (the "Canva/Atlassian effect"). Now, we are seeing a wave of "Heavy Tech"—founders like those at Neara and Nevam who are not just digitizing workflows but are modeling complex, high-stakes realities. The "tyranny of distance" has always forced Australian founders to build globally resilient products from day one, but this new cohort is applying that pragmatism to physical and structural problems—energy resilience and data integrity—rather than just consumer convenience.
Landscape Comparison: Logic vs. Physics
I wanted to see how this is different from the platforms my friend Duncan Chapple represents at Elisa (specifically their industrial and telecom automation suites). The answer is yes, and the distinction effectively maps the two halves of a modern utility: Logic vs. Physics.
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1. The Logical Layer (Elisa):
Platforms like those Duncan advocates for (e.g., Elisa Polystar) typically optimize the logical layer—data packets, network traffic, and automated workflows ("Zero-Touch Automation"). They ensure the signal gets from A to B efficiently and that the network logic is sound. -
2. The Physical Layer (Neara):
Neara optimizes the physical layer—gravity, tension, ambient temperature, and structural integrity. It isn't looking at the signal inside the cable; it is looking at the stress on the pole. This distinction is critical because if a logical layer fails, you get latency; if the physical layer fails (as seen in California and Texas), you get wildfires. Neara is the "Physics-Enabled" twin designed specifically for that high-stakes material reality.
What This Means for the Next 5 Years
We are entering an era of "Brownfield Breakouts." The most valuable companies in the industrial sector over the next five years will not be the ones building new infrastructure, but the ones that use software to extract latent capacity from existing (brownfield) assets.
Expect to see "Physics-as-a-Service" become a standard procurement requirement for regulated utilities. If a utility cannot prove it is maximizing its existing physical footprint before asking for rate hikes to build new lines, regulators will likely push back. Neara is positioning itself as the audit trail for that efficiency.
- Hoyle, Rhiannon. "Startup Neara Raises More Than $60 Million." The Wall Street Journal, 9 Feb. 2026, www.wsj.com.
- Sadamori, Keisuke. "Electricity 2026." International Energy Agency, 24 Jan. 2026, www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2026.
- Wheatley, Mike. "Digital twin startup Neara raises $63M to help power companies cope with AI’s energy demands." SiliconANGLE, 9 Feb. 2026, siliconangle.com.
Disclaimer: This blog post reflects my personal views only. AI tools may have been used for brevity, structure, or research support. Please independently verify any information before relying on it. This content does not represent the views of my employer, Infotech.com.
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