Arbol raises $7m Series A for parametric weather risk platform

Arbol, Inc., the marketplace technology provider that supports parametric risk transfer or weather insurance and utilises smart contracts, has raised a $7 million Series A funding round to help grow its business.

Arbol said that the Series A was oversubscribed and completed at much higher valuation from its initial seed funding round.

The seed investors, including Finch Finance LLC and Space Capital, all participated again in the Series A round, as well as one new investor, Mubadala Capital-Ventures.

“Our strong Series A fundraising positions us extremely well to grow our team at a rapid pace while expanding our commitment to offer fair and fast financial protection for our customers affected by external risks such as climate change,” explained Sid Jha, Arbol’s founder and CEO. “This new capital, paired with having dedicated risk capacity, gives us the ability to continue to invest in and significantly grow the footprint of the Arbol platform. We are proud that all of our original investors remain committed to our mission and our growth. We are particularly excited about adding Mubadala Capital-Ventures as a partner in our efforts, and we look forward to working with their team.”

“At Mubadala, we are committed to partnering with exceptional founders early on in their journeys and supporting companies as they scale successfully. We saw in Arbol an opportunity to leverage geospatial data and next-gen underwriting analytics, to bring efficiency and transparency to the insurance industry, and ultimately help businesses of all sizes manage climate risks. We look forward to the progress this new round of capital will enable, and the long-term impacts the Arbol platform will have,” added Luke Nicklin, Director, Mubadala Capital – Ventures.

In the first 8 months of its operation, the Arbol platform facilitated hundreds of weather risk transfer transactions for institutional clients, representing over $15 million in notional risk.

The company told us last year that it had lined up $250 million of capacity from non-traditional market sources to help it expand.

Arbol also worked alongside Global Parametrics and reinsurance firm Hannover Re on a specific transaction last year.

The company hopes that its committed capacity will exceed $1 billion later this year, as it brings traditional insurance or reinsurance and alternative capital sources together to support growing parametric weather risk trading on its platform.