Weatherbill - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

WeatherBill is an online service, launched in January 2007, that helps people and businesses adapt to climate change. The company’s technology platform enables the real-time pricing and purchasing of customizable weather insurance using proprietary global weather simulation modeling and local WeatherBill monitoring systems.

Investors and underwriters

On February 28, 2011, WeatherBill announced a $42 million Series B funding with new investors Khosla Ventures and Google Ventures joining NEA, Index Ventures, Allen & Company, First Round Capital, Atomico, and Code Advisors in the financing round. The capital will support WeatherBill’s product and sales expansion in the U.S. and internationally.

Investors in the company's $4.3 million seed funding round include Index Ventures, a Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an Venture Capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

firm, New Enterprise Associates

New Enterprise Associates

New Enterprise Associates is a global investment firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments. With approximately $11 billion in committed capital, NEA is among the largest venture firms. The firm invests in three broad industry sectors: information technology, healthcare, and...

, Atomico Investments, a private equity fund managed by Niklas Zennstrom

Niklas Zennström

Niklas Zennström is an entrepreneur best known for founding several high-profile online ventures with Janus Friis including Skype and Kazaa. More recently he founded the investment group Atomico and has become a significant figurehead for entrepreneurs in the tech sector.-Career:Zennström started...

, Sean Park, who runs blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

site parkparadigm.com, Joshua Schachter

Joshua Schachter

Joshua Schachter is the creator of Delicious, creator of GeoURL, and co-creator of Memepool. He has a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh....

, and First Round Capital

First Round Capital

First Round Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard L. Morgan, the Philadelphia-based company typically provides seed-stage investment that ranges from $250,000 to $500,000...

. On October 17, 2007 the company closed a $12.5 million Series A round

Series A round

A Series A round is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture funding in the Silicon Valley model of startup company formation....

, with venture funding from New Enterprise Associates, Index Ventures, Allen & Company

Allen & Company

Allen & Company is a boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York City.-History:Founded in 1922 by Charles Robert Allen, Jr., he was soon joined by his brother, Herbert A. Allen, Sr...

, Atomico Investments, and Sean Park.

Nephila Capital, a Bermuda-based investment manager, reinsurance company

Reinsurance

Reinsurance is insurance that is purchased by an insurance company from another insurance company as a means of risk management...

, and hedge fund

Hedge fund

A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...

, underwrites the risk of weather-based payouts.

Products

The company’s technology platform enables the real-time pricing and purchasing of customizable weather insurance using proprietary global weather simulation modeling and local weather monitoring systems.

WeatherBill protects the $3 trillion global agriculture industry from the financial impact of adverse weather – the cause of over 90% of crop loss – with fully automated weather insurance products. Unlike traditional insurance, WeatherBill’s products pay out automatically based solely on measured weather conditions, requiring no claims process and no waiting for payment.

WeatherBill’s technology platform also powers raincheck.com, an automated weather insurance program for travelers worldwide.

According to the company's website, all WeatherBill insurance policies are "fully admitted" nationwide and carry an A.M. Best "A" rating.

Website Features

weatherbill.com serves as both the company's corporate website and also a front-end

Front-end and back-end

Front end and back end are generalized terms that refer to the initial and the end stages of a process. The front end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back end can use...

interface

Interface (computer science)

In the field of computer science, an interface is a tool and concept that refers to a point of interaction between components, and is applicable at the level of both hardware and software...

by which customers may obtain quotes for and purchase policies. WeatherBill also offers various free software tools from its website that companies may use to assess and manage their weather risks.

Investors and underwriters

Products

Website Features

Further reading