‘World’s first’ climate intelligence startup raises $30m

Startup Cervest, which calls itself the world’s first AI-powered climate intelligence platform, has raised $30m in an oversubscribed Series A fundraising round.

Using public and private data sources and machine learning, the startup seeks to help enterprises, financial services companies and governments quantify climate risk down to the asset level across multiple decades and threats.

EarthScan, Cervest’s first product, gives users on-demand access to current, historical and predictive views of risks such as flooding, droughts and extreme temperatures that might affect their assets.

Available insights range from 50 years in the past to 80 years in the future.

The goal is to help users de-risk business decisions, meet disclosure guidelines from the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, improve asset resilience and uncover opportunities for low-carbon growth.

Iggy Bassi, founder and CEO of Cervest, said that while much of the spotlight is on decarbonisation, it is not enough to build asset-level resilience to volatility and extreme weather.

He added: “Climate volatility has thrown us into a new era where climate intelligence needs to be integrated into all decisions. Organisations that fail to do so risk being blindsided by climate events such as the recent floods and fires in Australia, the droughts in Europe and the winter freeze in Texas.

“By using EarthScan to baseline, monitor and forecast risk, organisations can take action to protect their assets and navigate toward a more resilient future.”

VC firm Draper Esprit led the fundraising round with further participation from Astanor Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Future Positive Capital, Untitled and Time Ventures. The round brought Cervest’s total funding to $36.2m.

Cervest will use the financing to move “aggressively” into the US and European markets.

Vinoth Jayakumar, partner and fintech practice lead at Draper Esprit, said: “Climate tech has grabbed a lot of attention recently with good reason. But solutions come from understanding the problem. Climate intelligence is a new $40bn market category, which seeks to provide us with answers.

“Cervest’s pioneering approach to quantifying risk, in a way that was never before possible, means we can better understand the economics of the problem and bring real-world market solutions to bear.

“We believe Iggy and the team’s deep science approach will provide the foundations of the climate intelligence market.”