Tom Kurke re-joined infrastructure software producer Bentley Systems in early 2021 to lead investments out of Bentley iTwin Ventures, the $100m venture fund launch by Bentley Systems at the end of 2020.
Bentley iTwin Ventures is part of Bentley’s broader Acceleration Initiatives organisation which focuses on incubation, co-innovation and acceleration across the organisation as well as with the broader partner ecosystem.
Bentley iTwin Ventures backs developers of technology that can complement its parent company’s aim of digitising infrastructure management, for example in internet of things, cell towers, digital cities, utilities resilience and renewable energy. Touchdown Ventures supports Bentley Systems in the management of Bentley iTwin Ventures. The fund focuses on early stage companies, with initial check sizes generally ranging between $500,000 and $2m.
To date, the fund has made publicly disclosed investments in six companies: Plotlogic, which develops mine optimisation leveraging hyperspectral imaging; Niricson, the provider of inspection solution to uncover latent defects in critical concrete infrastructure; Evercam, which has built a 4D construction progress tracking solution; Unearth, a civil infrastructure field worker enablement platform; and FutureOn, which is working to simplify front end engineering design of subsea projects across a range of industries.
Kurke joined Bentley Systems from Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division of e-commerce conglomerate Amazon, having previously co-founded the geospatial analytics company Allvision IO, among numerous other entrepreneurial projects and exits.
Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years at Bentley Systems – between 1996 and 2009 – working in business development, software subscriptions and channels and alliances. Kurke has a degree in engineering from Villanova University in Pennsylvania as well as a legal qualification from the James E Beasley School of Law at Temple University, which is also in Pennsylvania.
