Google backs Climate X in $18m funding round
Climate risk intelligence company Climate X has raised $18m (£14.2m) in a series A investment round led by Google Ventures, turbocharging its plans for global expansion.
The round was also supported by Pale Blue Dot, CommerzVentures, A/O, Blue Wire Capital, PT1, Unconventional Ventures and Western Technology Investment.
Climate X will use the funding to grow its presence in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It will initially build out the commercial team in its recently opened New York office to meet demand from financial institutions, global asset managers and real estate investors.
Climate risk intelligence company Climate X has raised $18m (£14.2m) in a series A investment round led by Google Ventures, turbocharging its plans for global expansion.
The round was also supported by Pale Blue Dot, CommerzVentures, A/O, Blue Wire Capital, PT1, Unconventional Ventures and Western Technology Investment.
Climate X will use the funding to grow its presence in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It will initially build out the commercial team in its recently opened New York office to meet demand from financial institutions, global asset managers and real estate investors.
The company will also enhance its offer in line with evolving commercial and regulatory requirements by incorporating more data sources into its platform.
UK-headquartered Climate X focuses on providing financial insights into the likely impact of climate risks on physical asset valuations, including residential and commercial properties and road, rail and power infrastructure.
CBRE signed up to the platform last week. Other users include Legal & General, Virgin Money and Federated Hermes.
Climate X was co-founded by chief executive Lukky Ahmed and chief product officer Kamil Kluza. The company’s risk assessment model uses a digital twin of the Earth, physics and artificial intelligence. It is underpinned by more than 500tn data points, including a database of 1.5bn individual assets and 44m miles of infrastructure.
The platform allows clients to model the future likelihood of 16 different climate hazards, from extreme heat to tropical cyclones and flooding, across eight warming scenarios over a 100-year time horizon, down to an individual asset level.
The risks are then translated into expected annual losses. Clients can then determine the return on investment from taking pre-emptive action, based on 22 suggested interventions.
Ahmed said: “Assessing the impact of physical climate risk on asset valuations and business operations is now a necessity, not a nice-to-have.”
Kluza said: “The climate adaptation market will be a vital economic enabler in the years ahead, yet to date, it has been dominated by expensive consultancies reliant on manual human analysis and black-box solutions that reduce climate risk to a single rating or score.
“We are breaking the mould with technology designed to drive business value by helping our clients answer critical questions about their asset portfolios and investment strategies: where to buy, where to sell, how to build portfolio resistance, reduce insurance premiums and protect asset values.”
Climate X’s 50-strong team includes technologists, scientists and sales leaders from organisations such as Amazon Prime, Monzo, HSBC and Mozilla. The company is advised by financial services and real estate luminaries including Robert Wigley, former chair of UK Finance; Jackie Bennett, chair of the Bank of England’s residential property forum; and David Carlin, head of risk at the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative.
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