(Hurricane wind speed impacts, 2022 hurricane season in Florida. Image source: Reask.)
Reask (New York/London), a risk data company applying artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret and forecast global extreme weather conditions, has announced that it has raised seed round of $4.6 million bringing its total funding to $6.55 million to date. The seed round was co-led by Mastry Ventures (New York) and Collaborative Fund (New York), with participation from Macdoch Ventures and existing pre-seed investor Tencent, alongside pre-seed investors SV Angeland Hawktail.
Jamie Rodney, CEO, Reask.
Reask provides insurers and companies in other industries high-resolution weather risk analytics and forecasting to calculate the severity and frequency of extreme weather events globally on an anywhere, anytime basis. By applying AI across multiple sources of climate data, Reask says it delivers proprietary weather modeling algorithms that learn climate physics to offer dynamic forward-looking representations of atmospheric risk. This approach provides critical insights and intelligence to insurers and asset managers, which need more accurate weather catastrophe forecasting but are limited to unreliable and inadequate methods based on static historical statistics, according to a statement from the vendor.
Reask says it has a key focus on tropical cyclones, which have caused in excess of USD $1 trillion in total economic damage globally over the last ten years—of which less than 50 percent were insured. Various sources have projected that damage from tropical cyclones will worsen with climate change, which Reask characterizes as an alarming and growing threat to organizations worldwide.
“The ability to accurately forecast and measure the behavior of tropical cyclones has always been extremely challenging, especially given their complex interaction with the climate and propensity to damage land-based observational equipment,” comments Jamie Rodney, CEO, Reask. “Organizations need a clearer view on how extreme weather is changing, so they can adequately prepare for any impact to their physical assets, infrastructure, business models, and customers. Our goal is to bring this information more quickly and efficiently to people and industries so we can help those who need it most and before there is an urgent need for help.”
Sam Landman, Co-Founder and General Partner, Mastry Ventures.
“Ballooning industry loss rates, most recently underscored by State Farm & Allstate’s complete withdrawal from new policy issuance across home and commercial lines in California, illustrate why new approaches to extreme weather risk management must be adopted,” comments Sam Landman, co-founder and General Partner, Mastry Ventures. “Reask’s team has spent years investing in their technology platform, which has now been validated by many of the world’s most sophisticated leaders in risk analysis. We’re excited to see the continued adoption of their product across the insurance and financial services industries and believe the company is well positioned to become the new standard.”
Greater Hazard Coverage
Reask’s announcement asserts that the global insurance industry directly requires more dynamic extreme weather forecasting to price risk. Other industries including financial services, logistics, real estate, and natural resources also need better climate models to analyze hazards, the vendor says. With its latest funding, Reask says it will add more hazard coverage and grow its team internationally to better service customers in these growing markets.
Guy Vidra, Partner, Collaborative Fund.
“Our mission at Collab has always been to support businesses and technology that are pushing the world forward,” says Guy Vidra, Partner at Collaborative Fund. “Reask’s ground-up, physics based approach to climate analytics technology makes it possible to predict the outcomes and risks of extreme weather, allowing insurers to prepare themselves and others for the worst. We’re thrilled to support the Reask team as they continue to build out their capabilities.”
“I’m excited to continue working with Reask to develop innovative methods for better understanding and quantifying the risks of natural hazards like tropical cyclones [and wildfires],” comments Daniel Swain, climate scientist, UCLA. “Using approaches deeply rooted in physical science are critical in producing reliable estimates that can keep up with a warming climate, so the Reask approach is one that’s designed for today’s challenges.”