Stand hits $1B valuation with $70M round to re-price wildfire risk
What's the deal? Stand, a San Francisco home insurer, has raised $70 million in a Series C round at a $1 billion valuation, FortuneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → first reported. Saga VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led the round, with LowercarbonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Eclipse, Equal VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Inspired CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, NeotribeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Jackson Square VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → among the backers.
What's the endgame? Stand argues insurers price wildfire risk the wrong way — looking backward at statistics and sorting homes by zip code. Instead, it builds a "digital twin" of each home, simulating how a specific structure would fare in a wildfire or tropical cyclone. The model accounts for building materials, surrounding trees, wind direction, and weather.
Chief science officer Matt DiStefano, 29, compares the method to designing an airplane, drawing on his aerospace background at Boeing and SpaceXDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company says it has built an in-house system, the Stand World Model, that runs physics-based simulations instantly — letting a homeowner see a premium drop by removing a single tree.
Why now? Stand says it now insures more than $10 billion of property, up from $1 billion a year ago. Chief executive officer Dan Preston says the business is growing about 15% a month, working in just two states: California for wildfire and Florida for hurricanes.
The pitch: DiStefano says zip-code models give homeowners a score "like a credit score you can't change," failing to distinguish two houses on the same block. The result, he says, is owners who spend tens of thousands hardening their homes and still get non-renewed. Stand says it has heard "hundreds of stories" like that from clients.
The signal: The $70 million round ranks among the larger raises in its cohort, a sign of investor appetite for startups rethinking climate risk as wildfires and hurricanes strain the traditional insurance market. Stand's bet is that pricing individual homes, rather than regions, can keep coverage available where incumbents are pulling back.
Read more: fortune.com
Image credit: Stand
