Fund II: $85M for Disaster Resilience

Protecting the systems that run our physical world

The world is getting warmer and our infrastructure is getting older.

The convergence of these trends has fueled a historic increase in volatility and disasters. America now suffers a billion dollar disaster once every 18 days, a startling frequency that has tripled since the 1980s.

These disasters come with heartbreaking human and environmental costs, but also a staggering price tag: over $1 trillion per year. The cost is comparable to our spending on defense or interest on the national debt.

While the trends are obvious, the market still underestimates the opportunity in protecting the physical world from disasters. Most people are perplexed by the tragedy of the commons: who pays for these shared costs?

Convective began as a specialist in wildfire technology backing founders audacious enough to take on this challenge. Our work there confirmed that entities with exposure to the physical world - utilities, insurance companies, government and asset owners - are so desperate for solutions that they are willing to try new things.

Facing bankruptcy, financial losses and market failure, these institutions are investing billions and shedding their historic orientations towards bureaucracy and tradition. Hundreds of their leaders come to San Francisco every year to the Red Sky Summit to learn about new technologies. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars with our Fund I portfolio companies to better measure, reduce and insure risk.

We’re incredibly proud of the work that’s been done so far, but we are very far from declaring the world safe from disasters. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve raised $85M for our second fund.

We’ll make a similar number of investments (~18) as in Fund I, but we’re writing bigger checks across pre-seed, seed and Series A and expanding our focus from wildfire to the disaster resilience market.

Our Fund II investments so far span supply chain, manufacturing, forestry, design and grid resilience and include companies like Drafted, Edge, The Lumber Manufactory and Voltair.

We’re thrilled to have the backing of LPs like the Arbor Day Foundation, John & Patrick Collison, Pathstone, StepStone Group and WovenEarth Ventures as well as two insurance companies, several foundations and a pension fund.

With more scale comes more resources for our founders. We expanded the team late last year and launched Disasterproof to tell stories of successful companies in resilience. Updraft, our network of practitioners in the physical world, is now 10,000 people strong and has generated over $100M in revenue for our portfolio companies.

The venture capitalist in me is excited by the opportunity to build companies that put a dent in the world. The father in me is excited for a future where my kids will be safe, thrive, and able to enjoy this incredible planet of ours.

A resilient future is within our grasp and building it is the most exciting business opportunity of our time. Thanks for joining us on the ride.