NextStage AM Fundraising, Press communication

Paris, October 5, 2022 – NextStage AM announces an investment in deeptech company Skipper NDT, which has developed a proprietary and patented technology designed to preserve natural resources consumed on a daily basis by improving the reliability of the infrastructures that transport them. NextStage AM is participating in this first €4 million funding round.

This fundraising will enable the company to strengthen its international development and to add new service components around its certified technology, which is already used by leading industrial players (GRTgaz, Veolia, etc.) in Europe and internationally (North America, Asia, Africa).

Founded in 2016 by Maher and Luigi Kassir, Skipper NDT plans to double its workforce by the end of 2022. The company currently employs around a dozen people across its offices in Paris and Pau.

This investment fully aligns with NextStage AM’s strategy of supporting innovative companies with strong growth potential, and—when it comes to Skipper NDT—disruptive technologies within their market.

Skipper NDT’s mission is to support the ecological transition by preserving resources and limiting waste, particularly in the areas of energy and water. In this context, Skipper NDT has received the GreenTech label from the French Ministry for Ecological Transition and has been identified by the Solar Impulse Foundation as one of the 1,000 clean and economically viable solutions to address tomorrow’s environmental challenges.

Underground infrastructures transport 90% of the water and energy products consumed worldwide on a daily basis. These infrastructures require regular maintenance and monitoring to prevent incidents that can lead to severe human, environmental, and material consequences. According to a study by the French Observatory of Public Water and Sanitation Services, up to 20% of drinking water is estimated to be lost due to leaks or accidental damage to pipelines. This led the French government to introduce the DT-DICT regulation in 2012, requiring centimetre-level geolocation of all sensitive underground networks by 2032, with the aim of improving the accuracy of geospatial mapping of these structures.

Another major challenge in energy transportation lies in reducing risks caused by third-party construction work. Safety threats related to underground works can be significantly mitigated through centimetre-level geolocation accuracy (lateral, horizontal, and depth of cover). This is what led Skipper NDT to develop a technology for pipeline mapping using drone-mounted magnetometers and geolocation equipment to create high-precision digital twins. Patented algorithms automatically process the data, thereby eliminating the risk of human error.