Risilience, a climate analytics and risk assessment platform for businesses, raises $26 million • TechCrunch

Risilience, a SaaS-based analytics platform that helps companies assess their climate risk and plan their transition to net-zero carbon emissions, raised $26m in Series B funding round .

The increase comes as an ESG (environmental, social and [corporate] governance) startups from all walks of life continued to raise funds throughout the recession, with climate-focused companies doing particularly well. According to data from Bloomberg, venture capital (VC) and private equity financing found their way into 539 deals in the third quarter of 2022, slightly less than the 547 climate finance deals in the previous three months. .

Separately, PwC’s State of Climate Tech 2022 report found that more than a quarter of every venture capital dollar spent in 2022 went to climate tech, totaling around $15-20 billion per quarter – a figure roughly comparable to the previous year.

There is, of course, a good reason why climate tech may have been a bit more resilient to economic headwinds than other sectors. The global climate catastrophe is somewhere high on the agenda in many political and business spheres, with growing pressure on businesses to address their carbon emissions and do their part to counter their impact on climate change. climatic. And capturing the right kind of data and generating insights is at the heart of that.

“Organizations are struggling to understand and quantify how climate risk financially affects their business and plan their path to net zero,” Rislience CEO Dr. Andrew Coburn explained to TechCrunch. “As we move towards a low-carbon economy, businesses face near-term transition risks, such as regulatory changes and climate-related litigation; and long-term physical risks, such as floods and weather events.

Digital twins

Resilience, in a nutshell, promises to enable companies to “turn data into actionable insights” and measure the (potential) impact of climate-related risks on their business. For example, the company has built a “digital twin” technology that allows companies to connect their own internal systems and databases to visualize and “test” the impact of a myriad of “risks”, which, in plus weather events, can include increasing regulations, litigation, and even changing customer sentiment.

As an example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new rules that would require companies to report any risks to their business related to climate change when filing investor updates.

“Large organizations face many challenges when it comes to disclosing their impact on the environment,” Rislience CEO Dr. Andrew Coburn explained to TechCrunch. “With the threat of greenwashing and growing pressure from investors, reporting needs to be very accurate, but with growing regulatory pressures on companies to disclose this information, they need to act quickly.”

Ultimately, Risilience is about helping companies move towards low-carbon operations while minimizing the impact on profitability, and at the same time enabling them to accurately report to all stakeholders.

“Another common problem is that net zero promises are made without a detailed plan to achieve it,” Coburn added. “Risilence provides the crucial insights needed to build this plan that updates with the ever-changing landscape organizations face.”

Resilience in action Image credits: Resilience

Spinning out of Cambridge University’s Center for Risk Studies (CCRS) in 2021, Risilience says it has already brought together a number of high-profile corporate clients, including Nestlé, Maersk, EasyJet, Burberry and Tesco.

Previously, Risilience raised £6m ($7.4m) in a Series A round in 2021, and with another $26m in the bank, the company said it was using the new injection. liquidity to stimulate international growth with particular emphasis. in the American market.

Series B of Risilience was led by Quantum Innovation Fund, with the participation of IQ Capital and National Grid Partners.