Itron buys Israel’s Locusview for $525 million as AI sparks energy-infrastructure boom
Locusview developed software for planning and managing energy infrastructure and employs 120 people. Founder and CEO Shahar Levi, who holds about a third of the shares, said: "We received six acquisition offers over the past year."
Israeli startup Locusview, which specializes in Digital Construction Management (DCM) for utility construction projects, is being acquired by U.S.-based Itron for $525 million in cash. Locusview develops project-management software for the construction of energy infrastructure and has been riding the wave of soaring demand for expanded electricity grids and new data-center infrastructure amid the AI revolution.
Itron is a major player in energy and water-infrastructure management traded on Nasdaq at a valuation of $4.5 billion. The acquisition is expected to bring Itron into the field of network planning and construction as well. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2026. Most of Locusview's employees will continue with the acquiring company, and founder and CEO Shahar Levi will join Itron in a senior role.
Although Locusview is a relatively old company, founded in 2014, it raised very little capital, with total funding of just $70 million, making this an impressive return for investors. Its only significant round was in 2021, led by the IGP fund, and in recent years the company has operated without external capital because it was already profitable. Other shareholders include Claltech, Leumi Partners, Discount Capital, and OurCrowd. Levi (44), the company’s founder and CEO, is estimated to own roughly a third of the shares, meaning he will personally gain more than $100 million. Locusview employs only 120 people, 60 of them in Israel, so many employees are also expected to benefit from the exit. In 2023, LocusView ranked third on Calcalist’s list of the 50 most promising startups.
When it was founded, Locusview’s business plan was based primarily on U.S. regulations encouraging the replacement of outdated and polluting energy infrastructure, as well as expectations of a surge in electricity demand driven by electric vehicles. But with the rise of artificial-intelligence technologies, and the enormous electricity demand they generate, a completely new market opened up for the Israeli company. LocusView’s platform helps streamline and manage complex energy-infrastructure upgrade and deployment projects, which typically involve multiple contractors and suppliers working without full synchronization. The system also provides highly accurate mapping of existing infrastructure to prevent errors and accidents.
Over the past year, Locusview passed the milestone of one million energy-infrastructure projects managed in the U.S. using its system, representing tens of billions of dollars in project value. More than 25 of the largest energy-infrastructure companies in the U.S., along with 150 infrastructure contractors, work with Locusview.
Despite its momentum, Locusview chose to sell. Levi explained the decision in an interview with Calcalist: “The energy revolution is happening now. There is a leap in electricity-infrastructure investment because of AI, not only in the U.S., countries see it as a national-security issue. When I founded Locusview, I never imagined demand would reach this scale. I expected growth from electric vehicles, but in the past two years we’ve felt a surge driven by the need to power AI data centers.”
According to Levi, the company considered raising significant capital to continue independently, but that path would have been much slower.
“The identity of the players who will lead this industry is being determined now,” he said. “In the past year, we received six acquisition offers from strategic and financial entities and rejected all of them. The goal was not only to sell, but to partner with a recognized global brand. Itron operates in 100 countries and will enable Locusview to expand outside the U.S.”
Levi adds that since Locusview began selling its product in 2017, it has never experienced growth like in the past several years: “Energy is the biggest bottleneck for data centers today, and our system enables rapid construction or upgrading of the grid.”
Locusview is currently selling at an annual rate of many tens of millions of dollars, and, according to Levy, has been profitable for several years. Most of the capital raised in 2021 is still in the bank.
“Our story proves that it is possible to build amazing technology companies in Israel, not just in cyber,” Levi concludes.
Levi himself has an unconventional founder story. He is not a computer scientist, but a graduate of the Business Administration and Law faculties at the Hebrew University. During his military service in Military Intelligence, he was exposed to mapping and aerial-photography technologies, but the journey from there to startup founder was long.
While consulting for a relative’s sticker factory that was being evaluated as a potential producer of stickers for gas-pipe connectors, Levi met the U.S.-based GTI organization, an energy-industry research institute funded by major utilities. Levi suggested that GTI develop an application to manage infrastructure-renewal projects and recruited his brother, a computer scientist, to help build it. GTI provided $15 million for development, but upon completion, the brothers purchased the intellectual-property rights from the institute and founded Locusview based on that technology.
