Autodesk has bought Innovyze, a well-known U.S. developer of software for the design of water supply, wastewater and water management facilities on the ground, i.e. all water infrastructure structures, for $1 billion.


Innovyze was founded in 1996, merged with Wallingford Software in 2009, and changed its name to innovation and analysis in 2011. Innovyze has 240 employees, about half of whom are involved in research and development. The company is moving its software to the cloud and implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning: all of which are highly valued at Autodesk and contributed to the takeover.


However, the main thing in Innovyze is not so much trendy architecture and progressive technologies, but rather meaningful specialization related to many aspects of water resources organization and management. The lack of quality water has been recognized by the UN as a problem worldwide. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 25% of the world's population lives in countries experiencing "severe water scarcity." Global investments to overcome this problem in the next decade are expected at the level of several trillion dollars.


The company's solutions section includes the following keywords: flow modeling, sewer and flood networks, water distribution modeling and management, drainage system design, etc.
"Water" is indeed a very relevant, commercially promising and expanding view of Autodesk.