Calgary startup Splice N Connect has closed the first tranche of a $1.75 million pre-seed round, led by Avatar Leadership Fund, to commercialize technology aimed at one of the grid’s most overlooked vulnerabilities: cable connection points.
These splice points—found across under- and above-ground infrastructure—are responsible for more than 55 percent of failures in North America’s aging electrical grid. With electrification surging and AI-driven data centres pushing demand to unprecedented levels, the company argues this blind spot has become a critical bottleneck for reliability.
Avatar Leadership Fund has invested $1.2 million as part of the round’s first close, with a final close expected in Q1 2026.
Splice N Connect emerged from the 2023 Avatar Studio, where its founders developed a proprietary, non-invasive sensing device and software platform that directly monitors cable connections in real time. The system is designed to provide continuous insight into grid conditions, predict failures before they occur, reduce maintenance costs, and strengthen overall system reliability.
Beyond traditional utilities, the startup sees demand from renewable energy operators, downhole mining operations, and large industrial power users—all of which face similar vulnerabilities at connection points.
CEO and founder Taban Sabih said Avatar’s ongoing support has been instrumental to the company’s rapid progress.
“We are thrilled to strengthen and grow our partnership with Avatar,” Sabih said. “Having formed Splice N Connect within Avatar’s Studio, we have benefited from Avatar’s hands-on leadership, expertise and strategic support as we bring our innovative technology to market. We are proud to have raised capital in today’s market, defined by historically low pre-seed activity in clean-tech.”
The raise follows a string of recent milestones, including winning Decentralized Energy Canada’s 2024 pitch competition and earning spots in the CDL-Rockies and VentureLabs 2025 cohorts—two of the country’s most influential startup programs.
The new capital will support continued product development, field testing, and initial pilots as Splice N Connect prepares for broader commercialization.
Avatar Leadership Fund says it remains confident the company is positioned to deliver meaningful improvements in grid resilience and optimization—an increasingly urgent priority as power systems strain under record demand.
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