Descartes Underwriting

Descartes Underwriting is a parametric insurance company focusing on climate risk. The company uses AI and machine learning to price climate risks based on IoT, satellite imagery, stationary sensors, radar, and third-party data.

Descartes collaborates with insurance brokers to protect corporate and public sector clients against natural catastrophes. The company offers insurance policies covering natural catastrophes (cyclone, food, hail, earthquake, wildfire, tsunami), agriculture and forestry (yield, drought, frost, excess rain), energy (lack or excess rainfall, wind, or solar radiations), and other industries (supply chain, construction delays). 

Key customers and partnerships

In October 2021, Descartes partnered with ICEYE, a provider of flood hazard data, to deploy the latter’s advanced flood observation technology to expand the offering of parametric flood insurance. Following this, in November 2021, Descartes collaborated with Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, an Italian non-profit organization to scale up earthquake parametric insurance for policyholders. In February 2022, the company partnered with Reask, an Australian tropical-cyclone risk analytics firm, to expand global cyclone parametric coverage by optimizing Reask’s wind speed data. 

As of November 2022, 250+ corporate and public sector clients, including Fortune 500 companies, had chosen Descartes to insure against climate risks, with a geographical coverage across 60+ countries; offices were based in Singapore, Sydney, New York, Houston, Denver, Madrid and London. 

Funding and financials

Descartes’ most recent funding round was in January 2022, when it raised USD 120 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Eurazeo and Highland Europe. The proceeds were to be used to support global expansion while expanding into new market segments.