London-based climate risk intelligence startup Climate X has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Google Ventures, which invested in StatusPRO and Nimbus Therapeutics, led the round alongside support from Pale blue dot, CommerzVentures, A/O, Blue Wire Capital, PT1, Unconventional Ventures, and Western Technology Investment (WTI).
Expansion plans
Climate X aims to accelerate its global expansion and help the world’s leading financial organisations price the impact of climate change across their physical asset portfolios. It will use the new funding to accelerate its expansion in Europe, North America, and APAC.
It will initially build out the commercial team in its recently opened New York office to service growing customer demand across the region from major financial institutions, global asset managers, and real estate investors. The company will also look to augment its products in line with evolving commercial and regulatory requirements by incorporating additional data sources into its platform.
Roni Hiranand, Principal at GV, said: “Climate X is a game-changer that accurately quantifies and addresses the impact of climate risk. We’re impressed with Kamil Kluza and Lukky Ahmed’s deep expertise in corporate risk management and believe they have the right skill set to create a next-generation climate risk intelligence product. We’re excited to support the Climate X team as they work towards a vision of becoming the backbone for all climate risk-related decision-making within financial organisations.”
Paul Morgenthaler, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures, said: “With the escalating risk of floods, heatwaves, wildfires, and other climate impacts, physical risks to properties are growing exponentially. Real estate as the world’s largest asset class is increasingly mispriced. Climate X provides one of the very few tools to quantify them adequately while enabling ROI-based adaption for individual properties. In addition to complying with mandatory climate risk disclosures, Climate X’s customers get immediate business value. The market opportunity is massive, and Climate X has assembled the leading team in the market.”
Heidi Lindvall, General Partner at Pale Blue Dot said: “With climate adaptation high on everyone’s agenda, the demand for the most comprehensive tech solution remains more critical than ever. Climate X has proven to be the superior choice in this space and, with their deep domain expertise, they are best positioned to successfully serve the financial services market.”
Who is behind the company?
Climate X was co-founded by Lukky Ahmed and Kamil Kluza, who have over 30 years of combined corporate risk management experience. Lukky has led stress testing and risk transformation programmes for organisations like HSBC Bank and Lloyds Banking Group, while Kamil has modelled risk for organisations such as Barclays, MUFG, and Accenture and was involved in designing the first-ever tranche of coco bonds.
Its team of 50 includes technologists, scientists, and sales leaders from world-leading organisations such as Amazon Prime, Monzo, HSBC, and Mozilla.
Advanced climate risk platform
The global climate risk analytics provider helps financial institutions and real estate become more resilient to the impacts of climate change. It has created a digital “twin” of the Earth, called Spectra, that projects the probability of extreme weather events, and how they can affect properties, infrastructure, and assets.
Spectra is specifically targeted at the financial services and real estate sectors. Within that, it covers several asset classes with a strong focus on banking, which spreads into residential retail mortgages, commercial real estate, corporate lending, equity, bonds, and operational risks.
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, right down to the individual asset level. Translating these risks into expected annual losses, the platform allows clients to determine the ROI of taking pre-emptive climate adaptation action based on a range of 22 different interventions.
Currently, Global banks and asset managers trust Climate X as it has the most defensible and consumable climate financial risk data in the world.
Lukky Ahmed, CEO at Climate X, said: “In just over one year since going to market, Climate X has become one of the world’s fastest growing providers of physical climate risk data and analytics, driving value for global financial services clients with over $6.5 trillion in combined AUM. Assessing the impact of physical climate risk on asset valuations and business operations is now a necessity, not a nice-to-have. By demonstrating how our workflow solutions can drive both top and bottom-line growth, we have redefined physical climate risk solutions from mere compliance tools to competitive advantages that enhance business outcomes for our customers and their clients.”
Kamil Kluza, COO at Climate X, 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’re 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.”
What do we think about Climate X?
By providing detailed projections of climate hazards and their impacts on assets, Climate X’s advanced analytics platform, Spectra offers invaluable insights for financial institutions and real estate sectors. The recent $18 million Series A funding will accelerate its global expansion, making it a crucial tool for mitigating climate risks and enhancing asset resilience.
