The first thing you need to know about climate risk is that it is not a single number. It is a map, a forecast, and a probability, all layered on top of the specific coordinates of a factory, a power substation, or a mortgage portfolio. The second thing you need to know is that a growing number of people with very large checkbooks are willing to pay a lot of money to see that map. Jupiter Intelligence, a seven-year-old firm out of San Mateo, California, has built a business on that premise, selling hyper-local, forward-looking climate risk data to companies that cannot afford to be wrong. They have raised about $100 million to do it [axios.com, 2021-10-21], and their client list now reads like a who's who of global finance and industry.
From Zip2 to flood zones
The founding team brings a rare blend of Silicon Valley commercial instincts and deep-domain scientific credibility. CEO Rich Sorkin co-founded Zip2 with Elon Musk in the 1990s, an early mapping and business directory company that sold to Compaq for $307 million [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. His co-founder, Dr. Alan Blumberg, is an ocean scientist who developed one of the world's foremost ocean models, providing the scientific backbone for coastal flood risk analysis [energizecap.com]. The third co-founder, Eric Wun, adds operational scale from his experience as a co-founder of Opendoor [techcrunch.com, 2023-12-15]. This mix has attracted a heavyweight bench of enterprise talent, including former SAP cloud leader Dinesh Sharma and ex-GE Digital executive Matt Stein to the product team, and Jaz Sidhu, who drove a 10x revenue increase at Datamaran, as Chief Revenue Officer [Jupiter Intelligence].
The ClimateScore Intelligence Platform
Jupiter's core product is the ClimateScore Intelligence Platform, a SaaS tool that models physical risks like flooding, wildfire, extreme heat, and drought. The key differentiator is resolution and timeframe. The platform can project risk from one hour to more than 50 years in the future, down to the street or asset level [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. For a bank underwriting a 30-year mortgage in Florida or an insurer pricing a policy for a warehouse in California, that granularity moves climate from an abstract ESG concern to a concrete underwriting variable.
The platform is not a one-size-fits-all report. It offers modular scores like FloodScore and FireScore, and a tool called MetricEngine that lets clients build custom risk indicators for stress testing or capital planning [Jupiter Intelligence]. Delivery happens through web apps, APIs, reports, and consulting, allowing integration into existing risk management workflows.
Traction with the risk-averse
Jupiter's growth is best measured by the caliber of clients who have decided their in-house models are insufficient. The company claims to work with 25% of the world's largest companies and 15% of the Global 100 [Jupiter Intelligence, 2024]. Its penetration in finance is particularly deep: it serves two of the largest U.S. banks and 50% of the largest U.S. lenders [Jupiter Intelligence, 2024]. Other named customers include utilities like Hawaiian Electric and ConEdison, and insurers like Liberty Mutual, Zurich, and MS&AD Insurance Group [trellis.net].
| Client Sector | Example Customers | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Banking & Lending | Two of the largest U.S. banks | Mortgage underwriting, portfolio risk assessment |
| Insurance | Liberty Mutual, Zurich, MS&AD | Policy pricing, catastrophe modeling |
| Energy & Utilities | Hawaiian Electric, ConEdison | Infrastructure resilience planning |
| Public Sector | NASA, U.S. Department of Defense | Mission and facility planning [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] |
This traction has drawn a who's who of climate and tech investors. The cap table includes Breakthrough Energy Ventures, DCVC, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and corporate venture arms from Liberty Mutual and QBE Insurance [Startupintros].
Series B | 23 | M USD
Series C | 54 | M USD
Total Raised | ~97 | M USD
Where the model meets reality
No model is perfect, and Jupiter's business faces several credible pressures. The field of climate analytics is getting crowded, with well-funded competitors like First Street Foundation (which offers public-facing risk scores) and ClimateAI pursuing similar enterprise clients. Regulatory tailwinds like climate disclosure rules are a double-edged sword; they create demand but also invite scrutiny of the underlying methodologies. Furthermore, the science of attributing specific weather events to climate change and modeling second-order effects remains complex. A major insured loss that a model missed could dent credibility.
Jupiter's answer to these risks rests on three pillars:
- Scientific pedigree. The Blumberg legacy and ongoing research partnerships aim to keep the models at the cutting edge.
- Enterprise integration. Tools like the API and MetricEngine are designed to embed Jupiter deeply into client operations, raising switching costs.
- Strategic partnerships. A recent deal with global engineering firm Arcadis to integrate Jupiter's data into Arcadis's Climate Risk Nexus platform is a textbook move to expand distribution through an established channel [arcadis.com, 2025-11-12].
The next twelve months
The immediate focus appears to be scaling through these partnerships and continuing to land flagship accounts in regulated industries like banking and insurance. The 2021 Series C round of $54 million provides a long runway, but another capital raise within the next 18 months to accelerate international expansion would not be a surprise. A key milestone to watch will be whether Jupiter can convert its work with major banks into an industry-standard requirement for large-scale lending, a move that would cement its market position.
Putting a dollar value on avoided loss is famously difficult, but you can start with the premiums. A large commercial property insurer might spend tens of millions of dollars annually on catastrophe modeling from traditional firms like RMS or AIR Worldwide. Jupiter is asking them to pay for a new, climate-forward layer on top of that. If their modeling can shift even a small percentage of a multi-billion-dollar portfolio into a lower-risk category, the savings in capital reserves could easily justify a seven-figure SaaS contract. The bet is that being precisely right about the next decade is worth more than being vaguely right about the last century. To win, Jupiter must not just out-science the academic models, but out-sell the incumbent risk modeling giants that already have a seat in the CFO's office.
Sources
- [axios.com, 2021-10-21] Climate risk analytics company Jupiter Intelligence raises $54 million | https://www.axios.com/2021/10/21/jupiter-intelligence-raises-54million-climate-risk
- [energizecap.com] Jupiter Intelligence | https://energizecap.com
- [Jupiter Intelligence] Executive Appointments in Product and Sales | https://www.jupiterintel.com/blog/jupiter-intelligence-accelerates-global-expansion-with-key-executive-appointments-in-product-and-sales
- [Jupiter Intelligence, 2024] Company and Product Pages | https://www.jupiterintel.com
- [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] Jupiter Intelligence Brief | (Sourced from provided research)
- [Startupintros] Jupiter Intelligence: Funding, Team & Investors | https://startupintros.com/orgs/jupiter-intelligence
- [techcrunch.com, 2023-12-15] Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu is stepping down to return to his startup roots | https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/15/opendoor-co-founder-eric-wu-is-stepping-down-to-return-to-his-startup-roots/
- [trellis.net] Jupiter Intelligence Clients | https://trellis.net
- [arcadis.com, 2025-11-12] Arcadis partners with Jupiter Intelligence | https://www.arcadis.com