Usually, during the summer, there’s not a strong need for the weather forecast, as it’s enough to walk outside to learn that it’s hotter than hell and that life is so much better back in the loving freezing arms of the AC. However, with this said, the weather forecast is a strong indicator that drastically impacts many different industries. From supply chains to vehicle fleets, through sea transportation, factories, and many other industries depend on predicting weather patterns as a critical part of the day-to-day operations. Israeli-American company ClimaCell, developer of super accurate weather forecast model, announces a $23 million Series C funding round led by Pitango Growth and Square Peg Capital.
Everything connected to the internet helps with the forecast
The Israel and Boston based ClimaCell uses an interesting notion to determine the forecast. They say if the weather affects almost everything in the world, then why can’t all those things provide sensory readings regarding the weather. Currently, the most common way of predicting the weather is used by government-backed forecasting models, and unfortunately in today’s data-backed the world these government models just don’t offer enough. ClimaCell though, taps into, what we would call unconventional resources, to predict the weather: cellular towers, satellites, connected vehicles, street cameras, drones, planes and almost any other connected device. According to the company, this provides much more accurate data that also paints a bigger picture for a more precise forecast.
Instead of leaning on standard forecasts that refer to a whole city as one weather zone, ClimaCell says that they can provide forecast accuracy up to 500 meters every minute. The weather-tech company claims that by using its technology, organizations can save customers millions of dollars in operational efficiency, by helping prevent substantial costs caused by weather damage.
In a conversation with Geektime, ClimaCell CMO Dan Slagen explains that during the past year the company launched a global API interface, meaning that its data can be integrated into any existing system. “This allows anyone from any industry to use ClimaCell, and it doesn’t matter if you work for the railways or as a data-scientist at a big tech company.”
ClimaCell being the innovator that it is, wasn’t sufficient enough with the just enabling organizations with critical and accurate weather forecasts, therefore they released an app for both Android and iOS. Slagen reports that the app has gone through a major overhaul, and now, allows users to plan physical activities according to data-driven weather reports. However, my experience with the app wasn’t rainbows and sunshine, I must admit that I wasn’t as impressed with the forecast service, considering that I found myself in the middle of a heavy downpour, only to be alerted about the rain some 5 minutes later.
A little less than a month ago the weather-tech company partnered with SupPlant to try and bring the IoT into the market of small-time greenhouse growers. Also using the forecast system to better predict the weather, offering farmers more insight as when to plant, water, and generally care for the crops.
The company currently employs 100 workers split between offices in North America, Israel, and Asia. Founded in 2015 by CEO Shimon Elkabetz; CSO Rei Goffer; and CCO Itai Zlotnik, the company already has a more than impressive list of big-name clients including mobility giant, Uber, Delta, Ford, AWS, United, and more.
