(Image source: RockRose Risk website.)
RockRose Risk (San Francisco) has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding to scale its wildfire mitigation-first insurance model.
The round was led by Crosslink Capital (Menlo Park, Calif.), with participation from Congruent Ventures and Nuveen, according to a RockRose statement. The company says the funding will support growth of its engineering and operations teams, further investment in its AI platform and automation technology, and expansion of its vertically integrated risk-management model.
Andrew Engler, Co-Founder and CEO, RockRose Risk.
RockRose Risk operates as an insurance brokerage that helps property owners secure insurance discounts through wildfire mitigation. The company serves commercial property owners and homeowners in wildfire-prone regions, including California, Colorado and Nevada.
The company says its clients include homeowners associations, hotel groups, wineries, farms, strip malls, municipalities and commercial real estate portfolios. RockRose combines property-level wildfire risk assessment, mitigation services and insurance placement in a single model intended to reduce both wildfire exposure and insurance costs.
“We’ve reached the point where we’ve proven the model works,” comments Andrew Engler, Co-Founder and CEO, RockRose Risk. “We’ve demonstrated that combining on-the-ground property assessments, mitigation expertise, and proprietary technology leads to fundamentally better insurance outcomes.”
RockRose says it plans to acquire complementary businesses, including tree-trimming and roofing companies, so property owners can work with a single partner to assess wildfire risk, complete mitigation work and secure insurance.
Responding to Stressed Property Insurance Markets
The company positions the model as a response to stressed property insurance markets in wildfire-exposed regions. In California, the FAIR Plan has faced increased pressure as carriers have reduced exposure in wildfire-prone areas, leaving some homeowners and commercial property owners with fewer private-market options.
RockRose says its mitigation-first model is designed to help move properties back into the admitted market by pairing verified mitigation work with detailed property-level risk assessments.
The company reports average premium reductions of 35 percent for commercial clients and says it has worked with more than $7 billion in total insurable value since its founding.
More Resilient and Insurable Homes
Eliza Cushman, Partner, Congruent Ventures.
“Wildfire has fundamentally fractured insurance markets, creating a widespread availability and pricing crisis,” comments Eliza Cushman, Partner, Congruent Ventures. “RockRose has built the AI-native brokerage that ties insurance outcomes directly to property mitigation, so that homes can get more resilient and more insurable.”
The funding follows RockRose’s expansion into California homeowners insurance, its first move into the residential market after building its commercial business in California, Colorado and Nevada. The company has also introduced Rosebud, an autonomous property-assessment rover designed to support property-level wildfire risk evaluation.
RockRose Risk was founded by Engler, a catastrophe risk and insurance veteran. The company combines wildfire risk assessment, mitigation partnerships and automation technology to help property owners in catastrophe-exposed markets improve insurability and reduce premiums.