As climate related disruptions become a defining operational risk for global industry, Zurich based startup ScyAI is positioning itself at the intersection of insurance, infrastructure and data. The company has closed a €2 million pre seed funding round to scale its platform that helps organisations measure, explain and insure their physical climate risk more accurately.
The round was led by AENU and co led by PT1, with participation from a group of prominent founders and angel investors. These include David Helgason, co founder of Unity, Maex Ament and Philip Stehlik of Taulia and Centrifuge through Anti Ordinary Ventures, as well as Bela Lainck, Robert Levenhagen, Christoph Aufmhof and Stefanie Gerhart through the better ventures angel alliance.
A growing protection gap in climate risk
For manufacturers, energy producers and companies operating large portfolios of physical assets, climate risk is no longer a distant concern. Floods, storms, heatwaves and other extreme weather events are increasingly disrupting operations and driving financial losses. Despite this, a large share of these losses remains uninsured.
A key reason is the way insurance risk is traditionally assessed. Pricing and coverage decisions are often based on broad regional or sector level assumptions rather than the specific characteristics of individual assets. This approach can overlook important details such as building design, resilience investments, operational safeguards or how assets are distributed across locations.
As a result, organisations with strong mitigation measures may still face high premiums or restrictive coverage, while insurers struggle to accurately assess risk exposure. This mismatch contributes to what is widely referred to as the protection gap, the difference between economic losses and insured losses.
Turning operational data into insurance ready insights
ScyAI aims to close this gap by making physical risk measurable at the asset level. Its platform combines internal operational data with external hazard and climate models to generate quantified and auditable risk profiles for individual facilities and asset portfolios.
These profiles are designed to align with the metrics and methodologies used by underwriters. By translating company specific data into a language insurers recognise, ScyAI enables organisations to clearly demonstrate how their actual risk differs from industry averages.
According to the company, this approach allows risk and insurance teams to identify coverage gaps, negotiate premiums more effectively and make informed decisions about risk retention versus transfer.
Early results show tangible benefits
ScyAI reports that early users of the platform have already seen concrete outcomes. These include reductions in insurance premiums and improvements in coverage terms, driven by increased transparency and better alignment between company risk profiles and insurer expectations.
The platform is particularly targeted at organisations with significant physical infrastructure, including industrial manufacturers, utilities and energy producers, where even small improvements in insurance efficiency can translate into substantial financial impact.
Beyond insurance, the quantified risk insights also support internal decision making, helping companies prioritise resilience investments and understand how physical climate risk affects long term asset value.
Building clarity around physical risk
Founder and CEO Bernhard Rannegger said that physical climate risk is rapidly becoming a central financial and operational issue for companies across sectors.
He explained that while the risk itself is growing, the bigger challenge is often the lack of clarity. Without reliable and comparable metrics, companies struggle to explain their exposure internally and externally.
ScyAI’s goal, he said, is to make physical risks measurable, auditable and understandable, enabling organisations to engage with insurers, investors and stakeholders on a more informed basis.
Scaling across Europe and beyond
With the new funding, ScyAI plans to continue developing its platform and expand its reach among asset heavy industries. The company is focused on deepening its modelling capabilities and supporting more complex portfolios as climate risk increasingly shapes insurance markets and corporate strategy.
As insurers demand better data and companies seek fairer coverage, ScyAI is betting that transparency and precision will become essential infrastructure for managing physical climate risk.
