Global infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems has announced the acquisition of Blyncsy, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for the transportation sector, supporting operations and maintenance activities.
Bentley said the digital twin ecosystem focus of its iTwin Ventures portfolio is bolstered by the acquisition, accelerating the development and propagation of such broadly valuable infrastructure asset analytics.
Founded in 2014 in Salt Lake City, USA, by CEO Mark Pittman, Blyncsy applies computer vision and AI in analysing commonly available imagery to identify maintenance issues on roadway networks.
According to an official statement, Blyncsy’s AI services replace costly and slow manual data collection efforts, reducing the need for personnel or specialised vehicles or hardware in the field and improving transportation owner-operators’ awareness and timely mitigation of road conditions. Blyncsy detects over 50 different roadway safety issues, including the actual location of active construction work zones.
On the takeover, Pittman said: “Blyncsy is committed to applying the latest AI and machine learning techniques to benefit transportation networks. This alignment with Bentley will only strengthen the value to our users and together we will provide even deeper asset analytics to transportation owners, to support the drivers of today and tomorrow.”
Bentley’s iTwin Ventures managing executive, Mike Schellhase, said: “Blyncsy came to our attention for potential participation in a successive VC investment round. But we were so convinced of the significance of their breakthrough that we undertook its outright acquisition, in order to scale it rapidly and pervasively.
“We expect investments in widespread asset analytics to accelerate leveraging infrastructure digital twins.”
Blyncsy will adopt Bentley’s iTwin Platform for immersive integration with infrastructure owners’ engineering and simulation models, and Bentley will incorporate and bring to market Blyncsy’s AI services within its emerging mobility digital twin offerings.