nur.capital San Francisco Memos Projects
nur.capital

Memos 01

Companies, read closely.

Investment memos on early-stage companies, one at a time. Only public sources, every claim linked, the bear case written by me, and a dated prediction I can be held to.

Who writes this. I'm a student at Minerva University, not a professional investor or analyst. I write these memos to learn how to evaluate companies, in public. Everything comes from public sources, and every claim links to where it came from. I hold no position in the companies I write about, and no one pays for these memos. I will get things wrong: corrections are welcome at aldiyar@nur.capital. Not investment advice.

The map is a commodity. The planning desk might not be.

2026.11 · Series A · San Francisco · City & utility infrastructure

CivilGrid

The map is a commodity. The planning desk might not be.

Key idea

Everyone calls CivilGrid “Google Maps for the underground.” But only 2.16% of US utility damages trace to a bad record or map. The value PG&E reported was paving money, found by screening planned projects against city plans. If that screen repeats every planning cycle, CivilGrid is a planning company with a map attached.

The company

CivilGrid collects records of what is buried under US streets directly from the asset owners and puts them on one map engineers use before they design. $26M Series A led by Spark Capital, August 2026.

In numbers

5/10
confidence it becomes a venture-scale planning company
$60M+
paving conflicts PG&E reports, from a one-time screen
2.16%
of 2024 utility damages caused by a bad record or map

Read the memo

PG&E newsroom · 2026-08-27“$60M+ in paving conflicts eliminated.”CivilGrid case study“Identified $60M in Avoidable Costs.” Same number, two verbs. The customer claims more than the vendor.

The next memo is on the way.