Convective Capital raises an $85 million fund to build disaster resilience
Convective Capital raises an $85 million fund to build disaster resilience
Convective Capital 筹集 8500 万美元基金，旨在构建灾害抵御能力
Fire season kicked off early in California this year, with flames already approaching a former nuclear test site outside of Los Angeles. The rising number of natural disasters in California, and around the world, demand our attention — and, in Silicon Valley, venture investment. 今年加州的火灾季节提前到来，火焰已经逼近洛杉矶郊外的一处前核试验场。加州乃至全球自然灾害数量的不断增加，不仅需要我们的关注，也吸引了硅谷风险投资的目光。
Convective Capital, an early-stage venture fund led by Bill Clerico, announced a new $85 million fund Thursday, following up on a $35 million fund raised in 2022. While the first fund was mainly backed by wealthy individuals (including Clerico, a cofounder of WePay who sold the startup to JPMorgan for $300 million in 2017), this latest fund is largely backed by institutions, including insurance companies and asset managers. 由 Bill Clerico 领导的早期风险投资基金 Convective Capital 周四宣布募集了一支 8500 万美元的新基金，此前该公司曾在 2022 年募集过 3500 万美元。虽然第一支基金主要由富裕个人支持（包括 2017 年以 3 亿美元将初创公司 WePay 出售给摩根大通的联合创始人 Clerico 本人），但最新这支基金主要由保险公司和资产管理公司等机构支持。
Convective’s original mission was to develop the idea of “firetech,” investing in firms like Pano, which is building AI-powered cameras to spot fires early; Raine, which builds autonomous aircraft to dump water on fires; Burnbot, a startup creating robots for clearing brush and grasses; and an insurance company, Stand, which helps homeowners harden their homes against flames. Convective 最初的使命是发展“消防科技”（firetech）理念，投资的公司包括：开发人工智能摄像头以尽早发现火灾的 Pano；制造自动驾驶飞机进行空中灭火的 Raine；研发用于清理灌木和杂草机器人的初创公司 Burnbot；以及帮助房主加固房屋以抵御火灾的保险公司 Stand。
With its new fund, Convective is expanding its mandate beyond the threat of wildfire to an evolved thesis focused on resilience to “provide risk management in the physical world.” 凭借这支新基金，Convective 正在将其投资范围从野火威胁扩展到更广泛的领域，其核心理念演变为专注于抵御能力，旨在“为物理世界提供风险管理”。
“There’s $60 trillion of real estate at high risk from disasters, the U.S. spends a trillion dollars a year mitigating and recovering from disasters, we need a new approach to this,” Clerico told TechCrunch. “The silver lining is that it’s gotten so bad that the private markets can now take over — utilities going bankrupt, insurers leaving big markets, these are very large economic events, and those create markets for new solutions and products.” “有价值 60 万亿美元的房地产面临高灾害风险，美国每年花费 1 万亿美元用于减灾和灾后恢复，我们需要一种新的应对方法，”Clerico 在接受 TechCrunch 采访时表示。“一线希望在于，情况已经恶化到私营市场可以介入的地步——公用事业公司破产、保险公司撤出大型市场，这些都是重大的经济事件，而这些事件为新的解决方案和产品创造了市场。”
The first four investments from the new fund are in The Lumber Manufactory, a company building timber mills to help make forest management more economical; Drafted, a company using AI to do home design; Voltaire, a Y Combinator-backed firm building drones to inspect power lines; and Edge Technologies, a company building an insurance product to hedge against volatile commodity prices. 该新基金的首批四项投资包括：The Lumber Manufactory，一家建造木材厂以帮助提高森林管理经济性的公司；Drafted，一家利用人工智能进行房屋设计的公司；Voltaire，一家由 Y Combinator 支持、制造无人机用于检查输电线路的公司；以及 Edge Technologies，一家开发保险产品以对冲大宗商品价格波动的公司。
Convective’s first fund has invested in companies that earned $100 million of revenue and are worth a collective $2 billion. Clerico said 79% of his first fund’s portfolio companies have graduated from seed to Series A, which is much higher than industry benchmarks. Convective 的第一支基金所投资的公司已实现 1 亿美元的营收，总估值达到 20 亿美元。Clerico 表示，其第一支基金投资组合中有 79% 的公司已从种子轮进入 A 轮融资，这一比例远高于行业基准。
Still, this is a nascent field, and a big part of Convective’s work has been helping founders connect with customers regarded by many entrepreneurs as tricky to work with, like utilities, insurers, and government agencies. 尽管如此，这仍是一个新兴领域。Convective 的重要工作之一是帮助创始人与那些被许多创业者认为“难以打交道”的客户建立联系，例如公用事业公司、保险公司和政府机构。
A big conversation in the field has been how to convince insurers to start investing directly in technologies that can mitigate the impact of disasters. Clerico says that is starting to happen, in part thanks to insurance startups Convective has backed, like Stand and Delos. 该领域的一个重要议题是如何说服保险公司开始直接投资于能够减轻灾害影响的技术。Clerico 表示，这种情况正在发生，部分归功于 Convective 所支持的保险初创公司，如 Stand 和 Delos。
“There’s like a wave of new insurers that are stepping into the void left by the incumbents,” Clerico said. “That’s a really amazing opportunity for us as investors, but also it’s provoking a response now from the incumbents, and they need to change the way that they’re doing business.” “有一波新的保险公司正在填补老牌巨头留下的空白，”Clerico 说。“这对我们投资者来说是一个非常好的机会，同时也促使老牌公司做出反应，他们必须改变经营方式。”
Clerico said that AI tools are making his early-stage teams more productive, even as the technology enables new ways to spot fires with sensor data or model their behavior in simulations. But the industry’s wild push to build out data centers is also creating demand for exactly the services his companies supply. Clerico 表示，人工智能工具正在提高他早期团队的生产力，同时该技术也为利用传感器数据发现火灾或在模拟中建立火灾行为模型提供了新途径。但行业对建设数据中心的疯狂追求，也恰恰创造了他旗下公司所提供服务的需求。
“[AI] is putting a lot of demand on the energy system and water system through data center construction,” he said. “It’s not just something in our portfolio, but it’s actually creating market opportunity for our portfolio by adding additional stress to our physical systems.” “（人工智能）通过数据中心建设对能源系统和水系统提出了巨大需求，”他说。“这不仅仅是我们投资组合中的一部分，它实际上通过给我们的物理系统增加额外压力，为我们的投资组合创造了市场机会。”