WeatherBill in Europe
WeatherBill had a couple of exciting announcements yesterday (see TechCrunch and Red Herring.) Firstly they raised a further $12.5 million of capital from a group of investors including Index Ventures, NEA, Atomico Investments and Allen & Co. I also participated, and have been an investor in the company from the start (and have previously written about the company a number of times.) Even more exciting is the news that they are now offering coverage of a number of European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and Norway.) The opportunity in the UK is particularly exciting given the island nation’s changeable climate and its citizen’s well-documented obsession with the weather.
weather sex football business politics
Too bad they aren’t pricing France yet: England could hedge against good weather this weekend in Paris – I’m sure cold and rainy would suit them much better than it would the Springboks!
Anyhow, here is the press release:
Web 2.0 Summit, San Francisco, CA – WeatherBill (www.weatherbill.com) the world’s only online service that allows businesses to protect revenue and control costs from the impact of bad weather, today announced the close of a $12.5 million Series A round, that when combined with earlier funding totals $16.8 million. The round was led by investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Index Ventures, with participation from Allen & Company, Atomico Investments, and Sean Park. Existing investors include First Round Capital and several angel investors. Following the close of the investment, Kittu Kolluri, a partner at NEA, and Neil Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures, will join WeatherBill’s Board of Directors. The company also announced that Barney Schauble, a partner at Nephila Capital, WeatherBill’s risk capacity partner, will join the Board.
“Climate change isn’t just making the weather more unpredictable, it can have a significant impact on corporate profits,” said Kolluri. “There’s high demand for financial protection against unexpected weather. WeatherBill’s technology, backed by Nephila’s world leadership in catastrophe reinsurance, creates a unique and valuable financial solution for businesses of all sizes.”
WeatherBill is working with a diverse roster of clients in weather-sensitive industries that include agriculture, travel, leisure, and retail. Clients include ski resorts, farmers, restaurants, travel service providers, and outdoor sports and leisure event managers.
“It’s now estimated that nearly one-third of the US economy, that’s $3.8 trillion, is at risk because of climate change,” said Rimer. “With that much at stake, weather-sensitive businesses need to understand their risk and then be able to protect their profits quickly and affordably. The experienced team at WeatherBill is helping businesses of all sizes do just that.”
The funding will help fuel WeatherBill’s rapidly growing business in the United States and Canada, and expand the company’s service to five new European countries this week: the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and Norway.
“This funding allows us to offer our clients more customizable weather protection as we add additional locations to our service, offer newly supported weather conditions, and enhance the ease of purchase,” said David Friedberg, CEO and co-founder of WeatherBill. “Strong investment support and advice from these market leading investors is invaluable and will result in more accessible and affordable weather protection for businesses worldwide.”
New Enterprise Associates (www.nea.com) is helping fund more than 550 companies in the IT and healthcare sectors. NEA is the entrepreneur’s venture capital firm; built on the philosophy of team achievement and measures success by their entrepreneurs’ success. NEA helps entrepreneurs build strong businesses for the long term, not the quick turn.
Index Ventures (www.indexventues.com) is an European venture capital firm with offices in London, Geneva and Jersey and a portfolio of leading technology and biotech companies across Europe, Israel and the US. The Index team is committed to working with the best entrepreneurial teams and helping them to build their companies into market defining global leaders.
