With $5.25 investment, Understory aims to disrupt outdated weather analysis and revolutionize weather Intelligence using AI

A lot has changed since we last wrote about Understory in November 2018.  The Madison, Wisconsin-based weather infrastructure and analytics startup company with real-time tools to collect weather data that power business decisions, today announced it has raised a new $5.25 Series B funding to accelerate international expansion across agriculture, insurance, government and environmental markets. The fresh round was led by True Ventures, with participation from 4490 Ventures and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.

Late last year, the startup secured $7.5 million to power global expansion of weather sensor network and boost presence in the international agriculture market, especially in South America. The last funding investment was used to support the international expansion of the weather sensor network across multiple industries including agriculture, insurance, and air quality. The new capital will also be allocated to increase the company’s employee headcount and to expand into a new headquarters facility to sustain Understory’s growth as the company scales globally.

“Understory is fundamentally transforming how weather data infrastructure will be used across the globe,” said Puneet Agarwal, Partner at True Ventures. “The on-the-ground insight of critical weather events is essential for innovative decision-making across a wide variety of industries. We look forward to witnessing Understory continue to remodel the accessibility and accuracy of real-time weather information on a global scale.”

Founded in 2012 by Alex Kubicek, Alexander Jacobs, and Bryan Dow, Understory develops smart weather station micro-grids that collect tactical weather data and analytics for extreme weather events. It detects rain, hail, wind and other weather events directly at the earth’s surface, where the risk to life and property is greatest. Understory builds and operates weather networks that are comprised of patented RTi weather stations, which are full-stack, rugged, tamper-proof, maintenance-free, precision weather solutions. The stations measure at 50,000 times a second and power a cloud-based artificial intelligence core that stiches the measurements together to provide an unprecedented understanding of weather events.

Understory’s weather stations funnel 125,000 measurements a second into an artificial intelligence (AI) core that measures precise hail, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind and solar radiation, and air quality. The AI core analyzes the data to provide critical atmospheric, climate, and weather data to optimize decision-making across agriculture, insurance, government and environmental markets.

The Understory weather network has been used in several industries including in agriculture to determine irrigation and optimal harvest dates and times. With stations in metropolitan areas across the country, municipal leaders can leverage Understory sensors to track air quality and determine the impact of air pollution reduction strategies in urban environments.

“Understory is redefining the prioritization of weather data,” said David Hall, Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. “Capable of deploying cost-effective weather technology and pinpointing hyperlocal weather data in real-time, Understory has the potential to transform billion dollar global markets. We are proud to be investing again in a company that is scaling innovation outside of the traditional tech hubs.”

Throughout the U.S., Understory has deployed more than 600 stations within five major metropolitan areas and on multiple continents, with plans to further increase globally in 2019. The company recently announced Project Atmosphere, Understory’s endeavor to bring its Atmosphere technology to 10 new cities around the globe.