Cambridge energy data and software company Advanced Infrastructure bolsters team as demand for its net zero planning tools grows

Cambridge energy data and software company Advanced Infrastructure has made a series of new hires as the demand for its net zero planning expertise increases.

The company, founded in 2020 by University of Cambridge graduates Lily Cairns Haylor and Christopher Jackson, alongside Suhas Dattatreya and Kalpitha Nidigal, now employs more than 25 people from around the world, including data scientists, software engineers and carbon specialists.

Advanced Infrastructure develops and provides spatial analytics and digital twins to aid the energy transition, helping local authorities, distribution network operators and consultants to plan the rollout of low-carbon infrastructure.

In November, it welcomed head of marketing Grace Martin, product specialist Gabriel Clarkson, building physicist Nick Hay and energy modeller Pardis Sheikhzadeh, who join the business via a knowledge transfer partnership with De Montfort University.

In just two years, the company has built a client base of public and private sector organisations including Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, Oxfordshire County Council and Dundee City Council through Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire), which aims to accelerate the transition to net zero, and the RESOP Project, which enables local authorities to plan low carbon infrastructure. It also counts B2B and B2C organisations such as Zap-map and Cepro among its clients.

Lily, who is head of product, said: “With EU and UK targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, both local governments and private organisations now have a huge challenge ahead of them. Our aim is to support the UK in transitioning to renewable energy faster, cost-effectively and collaboratively.

“Through our expanding team, we now have the right people in place to support our next phase of growth which will enable us to reach and work with more local governments and the private sector to achieve their ambitious net-zero targets.”

Suhas, the chief technical officer, added: “As the UK electrifies transport and heating in a bid to reach net zero by 2050, we are seeing more demand for our energy data and software products such as our local area energy planning tools and carbon data services.

“Our products and tools are constantly evolving to improve the functionality for our clients who trust us to deliver scalable and data-driven software.

“In order to meet these expectations it’s imperative we have the right team and infrastructure in place to make this possible.”

The company says its mission is to create a greener and fairer energy system by making big data, transparency and traceability accessible to all users within it.

It provides GIS tools, datasets and APIs to support energy planning and carbon optimised energy use.