Replica, a US-based urban planning tool developer incubated by internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs unit, has emerged from stealth with $11m of series A funding, VentureBeat has reported.
The series A round was led by venture capital firm Innovation Endeavors and backed by VC fund Firebrand Ventures together with VC firm Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
Replica formally spun off from Sidewalk Labs in March 2019 and is working on urban planning tools designed to help transport policymakers simulate transit pressures through a combination of third-party and publicly available data sources.
Replica is already collaborating with local governments in the US cities of Kansas City, Chicago, Sacramento and Portland, and it hopes to add more municipal partnerships before the end of 2019.