March 23, 2022
LONDON – Climate X, a London-based climate risk analytics provider, has raised £4.1M (€5M/$5.4M) in seed funding. CommerzVentures and A/O PropTech led the round – joined by Voyagers Climate Tech Fund, Blue Impact Ventures, Deloitte LLP and angel investors including David Rowan (founding Editor-in-Chief at WIRED), Kat Borlongan (former Director at La French Tech) and Renaud Visage (co-founder and former CTO at Eventbrite).
Paul Morgenthaler, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures added:
“Climate X is a standout example of a Climate FinTech that is solving a multi-trillion-dollar problem for the financial industry. This exceptional team has produced a vital tool capable of delivering insights into climate change-related risks for global real estate.
They’re enabling decision-makers to place climate mitigation and resilience at the heart of their strategy, delivering the visibility that is essential to creating a sustainable business model. We look forward to working with the team as they accelerate their platform’s expansion internationally.”
Gregory Dewerpe, founder of A/O PropTech, said: “Accurately quantifying exposure to climate risk is now an economic, statutory, and moral necessity. Without concerted action, extreme weather events have the potential to cost trillions of dollars to the global economy. The built world will bear the brunt of this. Climate X’s platform gives a range of actors across many industries the tools they need to understand, assess, predict and report the exposure of their physical assets to ecological challenges – and in doing so enable them to start planning and investing accordingly to reduce future losses and pain.”
Pale Blue Dot led Climate X’s £1.1M (€1.3M/$1.5M) pre-seed round announced in July 2021 and provided follow-on funding in their seed round – alongside Blue Wire Capital, Jennifer Cheng-Lo’s NewChic Capital, A100x and several others – as a mark of confidence in the company’s growth. This takes Climate X’s total funding to over £5.2M (€6.3M/$6.9M).
Projecting asset-level climate risks and financial impacts decades in advance
Climate change-related risks are expected to cost the global economy up to $23 trillion by 2050, disproportionately impacting marginalised communities.
The UK Government has already announced mandatory climate-related financial disclosures by publicly quoted companies, large private companies and LLPs, enforceable for financial reporting periods starting on or after 6th April 2022. The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission has now published its proposals for climate disclosures aligned with the TCFD framework. Financial institutions are also attempting to quantify their exposure to climate risks following similar regulatory requirements introduced by the Bank of England – a tall order for even the most capable internal teams.
Data and tools to assess and manage climate change-related risks have been historically limited and have struggled to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of customers and regulators.
Climate X addresses this market gap by providing the advanced tools necessary to meet these statutory requirements. They deliver location-specific risk ratings and loss estimates for extreme weather events linked to climate change through to the year 2100, under multiple warming scenarios.
On-demand climate risk insights via Climate X Spectra
Spectra is Climate X’s on-demand climate risk data analytics platform available through an online platform or API data feed. The platform acts as a vertically integrated solution that covers a comprehensive range of hazard types and achieves up to 95% performance accuracy.
In an era of climate uncertainty, the company wants to enable stability and transparency with its ‘glass box’ approach. Firms can use either solution to quickly and securely access over one trillion data points tied to millions of locations anywhere in the UK. Spectra enables firms to meet regulatory compliance and build resiliency by incorporating climate change-related risks into business decisions, pricing and investment strategies.
Louise Brett, Head of FinTech and Financial Services Innovation, Deloitte North and South Europe, commented:
“At Deloitte Ventures, we work with the UK’s most visionary start-ups, to harness the potential of emerging technology and innovation in a way that helps to solve some of the biggest challenges our clients are facing today. Climate change is an intimidating challenge facing every business, but by collaborating with Climate X we will equip our clients with vital data which will inform their Net Zero strategies and accelerate their response to climate-related risks.”
Accelerating the journey from UK to global coverage
Climate X will use the new funding to service growing customer demand and expand the product offering.
“This investment accelerates our ability to scale our climate risk analytics solution, Spectra, and to smoothen the path for governments and businesses worldwide to use data they understand and trust to make multi-generational climate-informed decisions. We’re excited to enter the next phase of our journey with some of the best strategic investment partners in the world,” said Lukky Ahmed, co-founder and CEO at Climate X.
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