London-based climate tech startup Cervest raises $30M in funding to launch the world’s first AI-powered climate intelligence platform

Climate change poses an existential threat to humanity. Regardless of which side you are on, climate change is an urgent global issue with long-term implications if nothing is done to address it soon. The impacts of climate change are global in scope, unprecedented in scale, and can no longer be denied. Climate volatility with persistence and interaction of extreme weather events like flooding, droughts, and extreme temperatures is also putting trillions of dollars of physical assets at risk.

However, addressing climate change is not just about planting more trees, climate intelligence is also critical to make informed decisions. Cervest is a London, England-based climate tech startup and a provider of a real-time climate forecasting platform that enables organizations to manage and adapt to climate risk at an asset level.

Cervest’s on-demand cloud-based AI-powered Climate Intelligence platform combines research and modeling techniques from Earth sciences – including atmospheric science, meteorology, hydrology, and agronomy – with artificial intelligence, imaging, machine learning, and Bayesian statistics.

Using this approach, the company is able to deliver a standardized, science-based view of climate risk – simultaneously analyzing millions of global assets, across multiple time horizons and risk categories. Cervest is also able to predict climate impact, from gradual (soil changes) to sudden (natural disasters), which allows its users to quantify climate risk across multiple decades and threats.

Today, Cervest has raised a $30 million Series A round led by Draper Esprit. The oversubscribed round, which brings the company’s total funding to $36.2 million, was led by current investors Astanor Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital (Chris Sacca), with participation from Future Positive Capital. The round is also joined by new investors UNTITLED, the venture fund of Magnus Rausing, and TIME Ventures, the venture fund of Marc Benioff.

Cervest will use the financing to move aggressively into the U.S. and European markets. Through its freemium model, Cervest is providing open access to Climate Intelligence by offering everyone a free, standardized climate risk assessment, spurring new conversations, and fostering an open and common dialogue on shared asset-level risk and opportunities.

Founded in 2016 by Iggy Bassi, Cervest is a cloud-based provider of AI-powered Climate Intelligence that helps organizations manage and adapt to asset-level risk globally. Cervest’s AI-powered Climate Intelligence platform and EarthScan(TM) product put the power of a thousand climate scientists into the hands of decision-makers across businesses, governments, insurance companies, and financial markets to help them quantify, manage and adapt to climate change at an asset-level.

“Climate Intelligence is business Intelligence for managing climate risk,” said Iggy Bassi, Founder and CEO of Cervest. “Climate volatility has thrown us into a new era where Climate Intelligence needs to be integrated into all decisions. Organizations 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, organizations can take action to protect their assets and navigate toward a more resilient future.”

Cervest is also a Certified B Corporation with a vision to democratize access to Climate Intelligence through its open-access platform, driving a shared responsibility to protect the world’s critical assets.

“Climate Tech has grabbed a lot of attention recently, with good reason. But solutions come from understanding the problem – Climate Intelligence is a new $40 billion market category which seeks to provide us with answers,” said Vinoth Jayakumar, Partner and Fintech Practice Lead at Draper Esprit. “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.” Jayakumar will join Cervest’s Board of Directors.