Blockchain climate startup Raad Labs emerges from stealth with $2.25M in funding led by CoinFund

In the United States, wildfires rank among the most devastating climate disasters, inflicting billions in economic losses and human suffering each year. To combat this escalating threat, blockchain climate tech startup Raad Labs is deploying a distributed network of meteorological sensors in high-risk zones, providing a proactive solution to mitigate the devastating impact of wildfires.

Raad Labs has just emerged from the Montauk Climate incubator with $2.25 million in seed funding to revolutionize wildfire risk modeling through blockchain-powered sensors. The funding round was spearheaded by CoinFund, with additional contributions from Tribe, EV3, and Protagonist.

Raad Labs plans to harness blockchain technology to establish an extensive network of distributed weather, atmospheric, and ground-based sensors. The startup leverages a Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) model to enhance climate data measurement and forecasting. This blockchain-enabled network monitors weather patterns, greenhouse gas emissions, wildfire risks, soil degradation, and more. By utilizing web3 technology, Raad incentivizes sensor operators to generate high-quality data crucial for accurate environmental management.

Alongside the funding announcement, Raad Labs introduced T.J. Ragsdale as its CEO and co-founder. Ragsdale brings a wealth of experience to the role, having previously co-founded Entheos Network, a battery storage DePIN protocol. His vision and leadership are set to drive Raad Labs in its mission to improve global weather data density and accuracy.

“There is a significant, unmet need for high-quality weather, air quality, and soil data that can equip businesses, utilities, insurers, and governments with the necessary information to prevent climate disasters cost-effectively, rather than responding to them at a high expense,” Ragsdale said.

Raad Labs is one of the first companies to emerge from Montauk Climate, a climate tech incubator co-founded by Philip Krim, Evan Caron, and Sharo Atmeh. Montauk Climate focuses on developing sustainable future-oriented companies and bringing in experienced founders to lead them.

Wildfire

“Raad Labs is at the forefront of an exciting transformation in how earth observation data is collected and utilized,” said Philip Krim, Co-Founder and CEO of Montauk Climate. “With this funding, we are poised to develop groundbreaking technology that will benefit a wide range of industries while also empowering individuals to contribute to and profit from the Raad Labs network.”

The global forecasting market, valued at $1.76 billion in 2022, is projected to reach $4.18 billion by 2030. Accurate weather data is vital for sectors such as financial services, insurance, agriculture, and utilities, which rely on precise monitoring, observation, modeling, and forecasting. Moreover, extreme weather events are expected to cause $711 billion in economic losses over the next five years, highlighting the critical need for improved weather data.

RaadLabs is one of the many startups helping to fight climate change. AiDash is another startup that uses AI-powered satellite technology to prevent wildfires and power outages. The company recently raised $27 million in a Series B funding round led by G2 Venture Partners. In 2021, we also featured Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital after it raised $800 million to lower the carbon footprint and fight climate change.

However, unlike other climate startups, Raad Labs’ technology provides support for applications in monitoring and observation, modeling and forecasting, and utility service delivery. Future prospects include providing data sets for large language models (LLMs), AI applications, and methane detection.

The DePIN model promotes the collection of more weather data by offering high-fidelity, low-cost data to governments and industries and supporting suppliers with passive income through blockchain. Despite the existence of over 250,000 privately held weather stations in the U.S., significant gaps in weather data persist, posing risks to weather-dependent businesses. Raad Labs aims to bridge these gaps by leveraging the WEENie (Weather Enthusiast) community and expanding its network of weather sensors through reward-based tokenized initiatives.

“We are thrilled to support Raad Labs in their innovative approach to weather data collection and to satisfy the significant unmet demand for additional weather and atmospheric data,” said David Pakman, Managing Partner at CoinFund. “We believe this team and approach can create the leading decentralized atmospheric data collection network in the world.”

Raad Labs is supported by an advisory board of experts, including Osho Jha, CEO of dClimate and Chief Data Scientist at Arbol; Jason Badeaux, CEO of Daylight; and Matt Vitebsky, Former Head of Product at Accuweather.