Mitiga Solutions Raises €13M to Predict and Prevent Natural Hazards From Becoming Disasters
- The Series A round was led by Kibo Ventures alongside Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Nationwide Ventures, Faber Ventures, and CREAS Impacto.
- Mitiga Solutions combines scientific models with cutting-edge technology to better evaluate the impact of natural hazards, helping insurance, real estate, energy, and financial companies understand and address the risks and uncertainties of climate change.
- Climate risks are expected to add an estimated $200B to annual property insurance premiums by 2040, and insurance alone will be insufficient to deal with these risks. (1)
- Mitiga Solutions addresses the gap in commercial risk modelling capabilities and streamlines products and solutions for the insurance sector and risk managers using high-performance computing (HPC), AI, and science.
- Customers include insurance companies like Howden Group, international bodies EUROCONTROL and UNDP, and the non-profit Danish Red Cross.
London, UK 07 AM BST / 08 AM CEST, May 18th 2023: Barcelona-based Mitiga Solutions, a science-based climate-tech company that applies science and technology to improve prevention, resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards using AI and high-performance computing, has raised a €13.25M Series A. The investment was led by Kibo Ventures alongside Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Nationwide Ventures, Faber Ventures, and CREAS Impacto.
The funding will enable the company to become the market standard for Climate Score, providing companies with the necessary tools to assess, measure and report climate hazard associated risks, while scaling the use of its physics-based models to help prevent natural hazards from becoming disasters.
Dr. Alejandro Martí, CEO and Co-Founder of Mitiga Solutions, comments, “We're on a mission to prevent natural hazards from becoming disasters and push the boundaries of how risks are managed and mitigated. But most importantly, we want to make the world a more resilient and safer place under a changing climate.”
Global warming is happening at a rate unseen for 10,000 years. In the last century, human activity has increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, resulting in a rise of one degree Celsius in the planet's average surface temperature. Almost 90 percent of the extra heat has been absorbed by the ocean, which has warmed by over 0.33 degrees Celsius since 1969. (2)
“We want to make the world a more resilient and safer place under a changing climate.”
— Alejandro marti, CEO and co-founder, mitiga solutions
As the world changes, Mitiga Solutions takes into consideration various dynamic factors, such as weather and geophysical conditions to better evaluate the impact of natural hazards as a result of climate change. By adopting this approach, it more precisely analyses risks across time, which helps insurance companies, real estate, and financial institutions better understand and address risks and uncertainties.
Mitiga Solutions’ founders have been working on solving complex environmental problems for over 20 years from different technological disciplines like AI, HPC, geophysics and numerical weather prediction (NWP). The team currently includes 30 employees, 40 percent of which have a Ph.D. degree.
They recognised the gap in commercial risk modelling capabilities for the insurance sector and proposed to build a science-based HPC company. Mitiga Solutions was officially founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the National Supercomputing Center in Barcelona.
By 2023, all regulated market-listed companies and EU-based entities with at least 500 employees must report physical risk impacts associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation under the EU Taxonomy. Companies must conduct climate risk vulnerability assessments to ensure they do not cause significant harm to the environment. (3)
Several voluntary reporting disclosure and guidance frameworks exist, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Moving beyond greenwashing, these regulations are pushing for the state-of-the-art in risk modelling (4), based on physics-based modelling, as defined by the IPCC.
Martí continued, “Traditional risk management tools that rely on past events to predict the future are no longer sufficient, leaving businesses exposed, assets stranded, and reputations at risk. As a business, we value transparency above all. This is why we work with our clients to quantify uncertainty and allow them to make informed decisions. Our risk models and climate score solutions are not black boxes and contribute to more resilient and adaptable businesses and societies.”
“As a business, we value transparency above all. This is why we work with our clients to quantify uncertainty and allow them to make informed decisions.”
— Alejandro marti, CEO and co-founder, mitiga solutions
Javier Torremocha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kibo Ventures added, “There is a lot of potential and resilience in climate technology. We have been impressed by what Alex and the team have built; a proprietary state-of-the-art technology with multiple applications. We are delighted to support Mitiga with its vision to become a category leader while helping to reduce climate change disasters.”
In 2020, Mitiga Solutions joined Microsoft's Startup Program and continued with the Founder's and Fast-Track programs the following year. The company became a Microsoft ISV Co-Sell partner in 2022.
“We are delighted to support Mitiga with its vision to become a category leader while helping to reduce climate change disasters.”
— Javier Torremocha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Kibo Ventures
Brandon Middaugh, Senior Director, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund added, “The ability to predict and manage the effects of climate-related hazards is a critical need to adapt to a changing ecosystem. Mitiga's use of AI and high performance computing is a valuable tool to assess climate-related risk across a variety of hazards to mitigate threats and build a more resilient future.”
Mitiga Solutions has collaborated with leading groups to publish over 300 peer-review papers, led over 50 European grants, and contributed over €500M in R&D projects with 400 partners worldwide.
The company is operating in Europe with a team of 30 based in the UK and Spain. Customers include insurance companies AXA Climate, Howden Group, Willis Tower Watson, asset managers and operators like Group Suez, INDRA, Safran, and governmental organisations like EUROCONTROL, UNDP, and non-profits like the Danish Red Cross.
“Mitiga’s use of AI and high performance computing is a valuable tool to assess climate-related risk across a variety of hazards to mitigate threats and build a more resilient future.”
— Brandon Middaugh, Senior Director, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund
In addition to scaling its risk modelling offering, the funding will also be used to expand its science and business team worldwide, invest in its cloud architecture and security, and continue pushing the envelope of climate science. Mitiga expects to more than triple revenues in 2023.
For more information, visit https://www.mitigasolutions.com/
ENDS
About Mitiga Solutions
Mitiga Solutions is a science-based climate-tech company that applies science and technology to improve prevention, resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards using AI and high-performance computing. The company was founded by Dr. Alejandro Marti and Dr. Mauricio Hanzich. Mitiga Solutions is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, with a team of 30 spread across the UK and Spain.
Website: https://www.mitigasolutions.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mitigasolutions/
About Kibo Ventures
Since 2012, Kibo Ventures has built one of the largest VC teams in Southern Europe. Kibo Ventures’ team and investors are committed to driving global positive impact while achieving top returns. Kibo Ventures was born with the mission of partnering with European founders who are addressing today's biggest challenges through technology and help them grow and scale globally. Portfolio includes companies with a strong social and environmental impact like Mitiga Solutions, JobandTalent, Clarity.ai, Innovamat, Trucksters, Qida, Tier, Odilo, Paack, Acurable, PandaGo, Green Eagle and global tech companies like Flywire ($FLYW), Devo, Sorare, Exoticca, Capchase, Carto or Belvo.
References
- https://www.ft.com/content/5d271251-973d-45e5-8982-2e28bf96f952
- https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
- https://finance.ec.europa.eu/regulation-and-supervision/financial-services-legislation/implementing-and-delegated-acts/taxonomy-regulation_en
- UNFCCC, 2015: Synthesis report on the aggregate effect of the intended nationally determined contributions. FCCC/CP/2015/7. United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. - https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf
