There’s little software can do to stop hurricanes or prevent droughts. However, it can play a role in helping understand climate risks and taking steps to mitigate them.
Those capabilities, it seems, are inspiring investors to back some fairly large rounds for startups developing digital tools with applications in climate-risk management.
This week, two U.S. companies — Arbol and AiDash — closed on a combined $118.5 million for business models around managing insurance for climate-related damage and tracking climate risk for critical infrastructure.
New York-based Arbol, which pitches tools that rely on climate data to speed insurance payments, picked up $60 million in a Series B co-led by Giant Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures. The 6-year-old company says its offering can also eliminate the need for in-person damage inspections.
Like many in the space, its software relies heavily on remote data collection. In agricultural insurance, for example, the company says it can measure if rainfall drops below the level needed for crop survival and process rapid payouts when needed.
Silicon Valley-based AiDash, meanwhile, describes itself as a SaaS company that uses satellite data and AI-enabled software to help utilities and other infrastructure-heavy industries protect against climate risk.
The company announced this week that it raised more capital than expected, closing on $58.5 million for its Series C. Impact investor Lightrock led the financing, joined by several strategic backers.
If startups can help protect against or manage the aftermath of even a tiny fraction of climate-related damage, it still adds up to a huge sum.
In 2023, 398 global natural disaster events caused $380 billion in economic losses, per an analysis from insurer Aon. Last year’s total was 22% higher than the 21st-century average.
And things look to be getting worse. By 2050, the The World Economic Forum forecasts that the global cost of climate change damage will be between $1.7 trillion and $3.1 trillion per year.
Given the magnitude of these numbers, the hundreds of millions in venture funding going to climate risk startups might seem paltry. By startup funding standards, however, these are sizable sums.
Moreover, there are quite a few companies receiving funding. For an idea of where investment has gone in recent quarters, we used Crunchbase data to aggregate a list of 20 companies funded in roughly the past couple years that have collectively raised over $930 million to date.
With extreme weather on the rise in recent years, weather-related startups are seeing much of the funding activity. Companies in this category include the largest investment recipient on our list, Tomorrow.io, which has raised more than $250 million for its weather intelligence platform.
We’re also seeing a fair amount of overlap between insurtech and climate analytics, as insurers seek better tools to understand and respond to natural disaster risks. Besides Arbol, other large funding recipients in this vein include Zesty.ai, a property risk analytics provider, and Demex, a provider of climate risk reinsurance.
Recent funding rounds indicate investors have an enduring interest in the space. And given that much of the latest activity still skews to early stage, there’s plenty of room for growth ahead.
