Sensible Weather raises $4 million
Sensible Weather , a climate risk technology company, announced $4 million in seed funding led by Wonder Ventures and Walkabout Ventures. Additional investors include Group 1001, Spencer Rascoff’s 75 & Sunny Ventures, Raj Gokal of Solana Labs, Spike Lipkin & Gordon Wintrob of Newfront Insurance, and Kiran Bhatraju of Arcadia Energy.
This new investment, combined with a research and development grant from the National Science Foundation, and new debt capacity to support underwriting, brings the company’s total financing to approximately $10 million. Sensible’s first product offering, a partner-branded Weather Guarantee service, automatically reimburses travelers when bad weather impacts their in-trip experience.
Founded in 2019, the California-based startup’s Weather Guarantee service is built upon its “proprietary Climate Risk Platform, a high-performance data, analytics and risk assessment engine.” Consumers purchase Weather Guarantee protection when booking travel reservations and event tickets from Sensible partners. If a weather event such as rain is forecasted to occur during an outdoor experience, Sensible automatically texts the customer a link to easily collect their reimbursement the morning of their experience. Guarantee payments are processed immediately, with payouts based on the number of hours the experience is negatively impacted by weather. For example, three hours of rain on any day of a covered hotel stay results in an automatic 100% payout of the hotel reservation’s average daily rate.
“With climate increasingly impacting vacations, in-destination experiences, and outdoor events, Sensible’s Weather Guarantee service offers consumers assurance when booking reservations online as travelers can now recoup their experiential losses when bad weather interferes with their plans. Our embedded fintech service helps customer-centric travel brands increase conversion rates and ancillary revenues, while at the same time decreasing last-minute cancellations and enhancing their guest experience.” – Nick Cavanaugh, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Sensible Weather.
