Climate change risk analysis platform Risilience raises £6m Series A funding to scale net zero transformation for businesses

Risilience™, the leading climate change business platform, has announced a Series A investment of £6m from international investors led by IQ Capital. The investment will be used to develop Risilience’s leading analytics and SaaS platform for corporate businesses to assess their climate change risks and manage their transformation to reach net zero emissions.

Risilience’s ambitious growth trajectory aligns well with businesses as they take action to combat climate change risks. Over the past two years, the team has been helping companies at the forefront of managing their risks from climate change, including Nestlé, Burberry, Reckitt, easyJet, Maersk, Informa, Abrdn, and AXA XL. The current corporate client base of Risilience has committed to remove a combined annual 240 million tonnes of CO2e emissions – the equivalent of the annual carbon emissions produced by Spain.   

A fifth of all large corporations have now committed to a net zero target, and many others are set to do so in coming months. Risilience estimates that inaction would significantly erode the earnings value of many businesses within the next few years from increased costs of carbon taxes and consumer and investor pressures. By proactively taking action to transform their businesses now, the business benefits far outweigh the implementation costs. However, achieving the net zero target is a long and complicated process for large organisations, and many businesses don’t yet have a clear strategy in place to achieve this goal.  

Risilience provides solutions which apply the approaches pioneered by the Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, from which it spun out. Cambridge has a world-leading reputation for the application of climate science, combined with corporate finance and scenario development – using behavioural science and economic modelling. The Risilience platform incorporates datasets and tools for businesses to quantify the risks they face from inaction and assesses the benefits they will gain from deploying the right management strategies.  

The Series A funding round included lead investor IQ Capital, insurance multinational Tokio Marine, and US MIT alumni investment fund Castor Ventures.  

Dr Andrew Coburn, CEO of Risilience, said: “We are delighted to have the support of IQ Capital, Tokio Marine Holdings, and Castor Ventures in our ambitious plan to provide world-class solutions for businesses to de-risk their exposure to climate change. We selected these investors for their ability to partner with us and add expertise and access to key market sectors.” 

Kerry Baldwin, Managing Partner of IQ Capital who led the round, commented: “Risilience combines the technology, science, customer base and academic rigour to make a real and practical difference in the fight against climate change. This is an example of a British business helping the world’s largest companies to achieve and evidence net zero transition.” 

Tokio Marine is investing in Risilience to facilitate new insurance products and services to protect commercial businesses from the risks of climate change and incentivise sustainable practices in their corporate client base.  

Castor Ventures, which builds diversified venture portfolios for alumni of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is investing in Risilience to propagate emissions management technology in US businesses.