Weather Analytics prediction model get $17m injection
Climate-risk predictive software maker Weather Analytics has raised a further $17m in series B financing led by insurers Tokio Marine and WR Berkley. The newly-acquired capital lifts funding for the Washington-based company, which develops software for the insurance industry, to more than $30m. Weather Analytics originally developed its climatic modelling system, which combines historical weather data with claims and loss data, for US intelligence and defence agencies.
Weather Analytics, a provider of weather and predictive risk software for the insurance industry, reported that global insurers Tokio Marine HCC and W. R. Berkley Corp. together have funded a $17 million Series B financing round. With the new capital, Weather Analytics’ total funding now exceeds $30 million.

“This financing will accelerate scientific and technical innovation that vastly improve decision support in risk selection, pricing and policyholder services for insurance companies across the globe,” said Bill Pardue, chairman and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Weather Analytics. “Established providers are charging insurers too much and delivering too little. Weather Analytics is disrupting that equation.”

W. Robert Berkley Jr., president and CEO of W. R. Berkley Corp., said his company is a client of Weather Analytics and is “seeing concrete benefits” of the technologies that were originally developed for the national intelligence and defense communities. “From underwriting, to actuarial sciences, to claims – the potential for better decision-making and improved services to insureds is tremendous,” Berkley said.

Chris Williams, CEO of Tokio Marine HCC, which led Weather Analytics’ Series A funding in 2015, said, the technology that helps differentiate his company’s capabilities and the products it offers. “Weather Analytics leadership and innovation within the Big Data space will help push the insurance industry into the future,” Williams said.

In addition to Tokio Marine and W. R. Berkley, Weather Analytics investors include In-Q-Tel, a strategic fund focused on technologies to support the U.S. intelligence community.

Fusing historic weather and event data with claims and loss data, Weather Analytics helps build predictive models that can carriers, brokers and reinsurers can deploy to protect their bottom lines with insurance-oriented web apps.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Tokio Marine HCC is a specialty insurance group with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland.

W. R. Berkley is one the largest commercial lines writers in the United States and operates worldwide in insurance and reinsurance.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions USA Funding