Seed round · November 2026
The water system map that doesn't retire.
Every valve, hydrant and main in a small town's water system, on the phones its crew already carries.
Dolores IbarraCo-founder and CEO, Curbstop
Move with the arrow keys, the buttons below, or a swipe.
02The problem
A small town's water map lives in one person's head.
34 of 40
utilities we interviewed keep their valve locations on paper, or in a foreman's memory.
96 min
to shut off a broken main at our first six customers, before Curbstop. Most of it went on finding the valve.
03The solution
Curbstop puts the whole system on the crew's phones.
01
Tag
Crews pin each valve and hydrant as they make their normal rounds. A town of 4,000 connections is mapped in about three weeks.
02
Find
At a break, the map shows which valves to close and which homes lose water. It works with no signal.
03
Log
Every turn, flush and repair is saved against the pipe it touched. The record builds itself.
04Why now
The map is about to retire.
57
Median age of the lead operator at the 40 utilities we interviewed.
2024
Since that October, every community water system in the US has had to keep an inventory of its service lines. Most small ones built it in a spreadsheet.
36 of 40
Utilities where every crew member already carries a smartphone. There is no hardware to buy.
05The market
8,600 utilities have a crew and nobody to keep the map.
8,600
utilities on our list$9,600
average contract, a year$83M
a year, from water aloneThe US has about 50,000 community water systems (EPA). Our list is the 8,600 with a field crew and no mapping staff. Sewer isn't in this number: 25 of our 41 customers also run their town's, and that module ships in 2027.
06The product
At a main break, the phone shows which valves to close.
- AThe map is stored on the phone, so it works in a ditch with no signal.
- BIt lists who loses water: 46 homes here, with addresses for the door hangers.
- CEach valve turned is logged, so the next crew knows it works.
Elm St, 3rd to 4th · 46 homes off
- 1V-214Elm & 3rd21 turns
- 2V-215Elm & 4th21 turns
- 3V-221Alley main15 turns
07Traction
41 utilities pay us, and none has left.
Annual recurring revenue, by month
6 → 41
paying utilities, November 2025 to October 2026
0
cancelled. The oldest contract is 19 months old.
96 → 23 min
to shut off a broken main at our first six customers
08Business model
One yearly subscription, priced so a superintendent can sign it.
$9,600
average contract, a year
84%
gross margin
$5,400
to win a customer
8 mo
to earn that back
$2.40 per service connection a year, with a $4,800 minimum. In 36 of our 41 towns that sits under the limit that triggers a formal bid, so the sale takes weeks and not a budget cycle.
09Competition
Our real competitor is the paper map in the truck.
| Paper map and memory | Enterprise mapping suite | Work-order app | Curbstop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A three-person crew can run it | ||||
| Works with no signal | ||||
| Costs under $10,000 a year | ||||
| Shows which valves isolate a break | ||||
| Outlasts the person who drew it |
YesPartlyNo
10The team
We have run these systems, and built software for places with no signal.
DI
Dolores Ibarra
Chief executive
Eleven years as a water operator, the last four as superintendent in a town of 6,200.
TB
Tunde Bakare
Chief technology officer
Spent eight years building offline field maps for survey crews.
HL
Hattie Lindgren
Head of customers
A former circuit rider for a state rural water association. She has stood in 300 pump houses.
11The ask
We're raising $2.5M to go from 41 utilities to 250.
Where the $2.5M goes
- Sales and onboarding$1.10M
- Engineering$0.90M
- Sewer module$0.30M
- Reserve$0.20M
By May 2028, 18 months in
250
paying utilities
$2.4M
annual recurring revenue
To talk, reply to the email this link came in. Dolores answers the same day.