Singaporean startup Climate Alpha uses AI to enable real estate owners and investors to analyze the impact of climate change on their portfolios.
Climate Alpha, an AI-based platform that illustrates the impact of climate change on real estate owners and investors’ portfolios, announced it had raised $5 million in seed funding led by Jungle Ventures through its new First Cheque@Jungle program.
Climate Alpha’s founder, Parag Khanna is the author of a book called “Move: Where People are Going for a Better Future,” which explores how climate change, geopolitical changes and tech development are influencing where people choose to live.
While working on the book, Khanna and his brother got an idea to help their parents find a climate-resilient location where they could spend their retirement. Parag asked FutureMap research director Kailash Prasad to connect the climate profiles of different locations with property value forecast data. The insights they received first launched as a FutureMap practice area, eventually evolving into a separate platform – Climate Alpha.
Khan believes that Climate Alpha is a material extension of the thesis described in “Move” substantially backed by data science, climate modelling and econometrics.
The startup uses Geographic Information System (GIS) data and economic modelling to showcase to real estate owners what impact climate change will have on their property. The platform leverages public and private data about industry-standard climate models, census and economic indicators, along with proprietary machine learning algorithms to forecast climate change’s financial impact.
Climate Alpha provides real estate businesses with detailed physical climate risk data, projections and scoring, for any location in the world. Analyzing select locations, like the United States and Canada, the platform also includes additional factors like the reliability of energy grids and economic momentum, which can offset risk. The startup plans to add more countries to the list of advanced insights.
Moreover, Climate Alpha shows the expected future growth of a local economy and asset values compared to historical trends, to help real estate investors make data-driven informed decisions.
During the pandemic, Climate Alpha won a government grant in Singapore to develop its data science capabilities. It started cooperating with real estate developers like Lennar and Capitaland. Today, Climate Alpha’s customers include institutional investors like Oaktree Capital, BentallGreenOak, and Lennar Corporation.
Climate Alpha plans to use its fresh funding to expand research and sales teams, grow its investment advisory service, expand into the insurance industry and establish a global investment fund with major asset managers focusing on climate-resilient real estate.
