When it comes to developing climate technology software, it may make sense to start with anything related to carbon accounting, given that the hottest software businesses in the field deal with accounting, offsets, removals, or regulatory disclosure. A check at the startups in the space reveals where investors are interested: Persefoni (accounting) in New York has raised $164.2 million to date, while Plan A (accounting/monitoring) in Berlin has raised $43 million, Supercritical (removals) has raised $15.8 million, and CUR8 has raised $6.7 million.
However, one niche in this sector had a brief emergence before being swallowed up in a frenzy of M&A: assessing the climate risk of physical assets. Climate X, a U.K. firm, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round headed by GV (Google Ventures). The startup’s goal is to assist financial institutions in pricing the impact of climate change on their physical asset portfolios, and it plans to use the fresh capital to expand into Europe, North America, and APAC.
Pale Blue Dot, an existing investor, participated in the round, along with CommerzVentures, A/O, Blue Wire Capital, PT1, Unconventional Ventures, and Western Technology Investment.
The business says that its platform can assess climate risk for residential and commercial structures, as well as road, rail, and power infrastructure. Its current clients include Legal & General, CBRE, and Virgin Money.
Climate X, founded by corporate risk professionals Lukky Ahmed (CEO) and Kamil Kluza (COO), is following in the footsteps of many other firms. Four Twenty Seven and Climate Service were acquired by Moody’s and S&P Global, respectively. Four Twenty Seven assessed the impact of climate change on cities and infrastructure, while Climate Service assisted firms in considering climate risk.
According to the World Economic Forum, the climate adaptation industry is worth over $2 trillion, indicating a significant opportunity for Climate X. Recognizing the need for more scalable climate risk modeling in the financial services sector, Ahmed and Kluza created a digital twin of Earth with over 500 trillion data points and a proprietary library of 1.5 billion individual assets and 44 million miles of infrastructure.
