Climate change-focused InsurTech Descartes Underwriting secures $120m

Descartes Underwriting, which is helping insurers address climate and emerging risks, has secured $120m in its Series B.

The investment was led by growth equity firm Highland Europe, with commitments also coming from Serena, Cathay Innovation and Blackfin Capital Partners. Seaya Ventures and Mundi Ventures also joined the round as new investors to Descartes.

With the capital injection Descartes plans to scale its approach to corporate and public entity risk exposures. Funds will also help grow its technology platform, expand into new lines of business and further its global expansion efforts.

Descartes’ mission is to combat climate change risks. Its parametric insurance solutions leverage new data sources combined with AI to boost transformation within an evolving risk landscape and challenge traditional insurance models.

The InsurTech company works with corporate brokers to offer affordable insurance solutions to help their clients to manage their climate-related and emerging risks.

Its technology supports cover for natural disasters, including cyclone, flooding, earthquake, hail, wildfire, tsunami, tornado and more. It also supports policies customised against yield, drought, excess rain, frost, crop production, hail, forestry storm damage, wildfire, smoke taint and more.

Other support comes for energy related issues, such as lack or excess rainfall, wind or solar, and parametric insurance for supply chain and non-damage business interruption.

Descartes Underwriting CEO and co-founder Tanguy Touffut said, “The corporate insurance market is undergoing a momentous shift driven by a changing climate, the growing impact of natural catastrophes and a rise in emerging risks.

“Our aim is to be the global leader in delivering truly revolutionary solutions to brokers, corporations and public entities for these evolving exposures. With the support of our partners, we will continue to develop and deploy a new generation of insurance products that are entirely tech-driven, simpler, more transparent and quicker to pay in the event of a loss – adapted for the new risks corporations and governments increasingly face.”

The company previously raised $18.5m in its Series A funding round back in 2020. Contributions came from BlackFin Capital Partners, the Agicap and Ravelin investor.

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