In October 2017, Anil Arora sat helpless in San Francisco as the Tubbs Flame approached his home in Calistoga, California.
Arora watched through Ring’s camera as flames raged through his yard before consuming the rest of his possessions. That night, Arora and her family could smell smoke from the fire that had consumed their home, more than 70 miles away.
“It was just a shocking scene,” Arora said. “The next day, we just sat down and discussed it and said, ‘You know what? We’ll rebuild.'”
Anil Arora was watching through Ring’s camera in October 2017 as the Tubbs Fire burned down his home in Calistoga, California.
Courtesy of Anil Arora
As the family planned to rebuild, Arora knew he wanted a sprinkler on the roof so that it never burned down again. After scouring Google for options, Arora came across Frontline Wildfire Defense, a startup that just created a sprinkler system that was exactly what he was looking for. Two years later, he has a new home with dozens of roof sprinklers, each capable of shooting water and creating foam up to 30 feet in all directions.
Arora is among a growing number of homeowners turning to climate tech startups to bolster their properties against natural disasters that are increasing in frequency and effect due to global warming. .
In funding, said Harry Statter, CEO of Frontline, which raised $3 million.
In August, the United Nations climate commission released a dire report calling for immediate action. The agency warned that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels “will be out of reach” for the next two decades if not rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The report says that at 2 degrees Celsius, extreme temperatures will often reach a critical threshold for agriculture and health.
“We’ve had a house burn down, so it’s very real to us. It’s not a conceptual thing,” Arora said.
As homeowners think about how they can protect their homes, entrepreneurs and investors are starting to pour their time and money into this widely untapped market.
“What we have right now is an opportunity for the best and brightest minds to come,” said Greg Smithies, partner and head of climate technology at Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm. to start doing something really worthwhile. To date, Fifth Wall has raised more than $300 million for its climate technology fund.
Over the course of November, more venture capital was invested in climate technology in 2021 than in any previous year, according to data provided by PitchBook. Nearly $26.7 billion was invested in climate technology in 2021, up from $15.3 billion in 2020 and $11.8 billion in 2019, according to PitchBook.
With homes and buildings in particular, climate change threatens to affect $35 trillion in real estate assets by 2070, Smithies noted, citing a 2016 report of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“The opportunity here for a startup to make all the cash given the size of the market is very easily much greater than any opportunity we have seen,” Smithies said. speak.
The Wildfire Defense Frontline system uses sprinklers, each capable of shooting water and foam up to 30 feet in all directions, to help homeowners fight wildfires.
Courtesy of Frontline Wildfire Defense
Peace of mind before fire
The point of the Frontline system is to wet a home, moistening combustible vegetation around the house and building materials, making it less likely to burn brightly if a fire approaches, Statter told CNBC. The system can be activated by flicking a switch in the home or through the Frontline mobile app. If a fire disrupts Wi-Fi or cellular connections, Statter says, the system can also connect to Frontline via satellite, ensuring that customers can activate the sprinklers regardless of the situation. any.
The company is also planning to release a new version of the app in December to provide comprehensive wildfire safety information in near real time to anyone. That includes a map showing wildfires, evacuation warnings, commands and safety to restore states, the company said.
“You don’t have to be the system owner to use the new app,” says Statter. “This is to reduce the risk to anyone living in bushfire areas.”
Harry Statter is the CEO of Frontline Wildfire Defense, a startup that created a roof sprinkler system to help homeowners protect their properties against wildfires.
Courtesy of Frontline Wildfire Defense
Defensive systems cost Arora about $10,000, though Frontline systems typically average $15,000 to $25,000, according to Statter. Arora said he decided to rebuild the house because of the family’s attachment to the place where his kids grew up. Paying $10,000 for fire sprinklers is well worth the money, he said.
“It’s an emotional investment and a financial one. Our kids grew up there with it,” says Arora. “You want to make sure you’re doing everything you can.”
Arora had turned on the system to wet his property months before a nearby fire, but he had yet to rely on the system to fight fires. But perhaps most importantly, the system is something the visible Arora can do, instead of passively observing.
“The most important thing to me is peace of mind,” says Arora.
Sylvia Wu and her husband decided to fortify their home in Corralitos, California, against wildfires this year with Firemaps, a startup that helps homeowners identify which parts of their property are at risk tallest.
Courtesy of Sylvia Wu
Reduce risk
Tech worker Sylvia Wu and her husband were on a trip in September 2020 when they felt nervous. Wildfires have begun to spread in Santa Cruz County, California, and they are uncomfortably close to their home in Corralitos.
Fortunately, nothing happened, but in June 2021, the couple decided to take steps to protect their nest. Wu reached out to her former colleague at Uber, Jahan Khanna, a serial entrepreneur whose latest startup, Firemaps, helps tough-hearted homeowners fight wildfires.
Fire Maps uses technology like drones, computer vision, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to analyze homes and determine which parts are most at risk of wildfires and what steps to take. can be done to improve their resilience.
Firemaps creates a 3D model of the home and presents the homeowner with a list of suggestions. After a homeowner decides which to accept, Firemaps puts the jobs up for auction to its network of contractors, all of whom it previously checked. Firemaps does not charge landlords for services, but instead takes referral fees from contractors.
Firemaps is a startup that uses technology like drones, computer vision, satellite imagery, and artificial intelligence to create 3-D renderings of homes for analysis and identification. Which of the properties are most at risk of wildfire and what steps can be taken to improve their resilience.
Courtesy of Fire Map
Khanna says he and his co-founders feel like it’s not enough to protect homes from the increased risk of climate change.
“The founding team all lived in California,” says Khanna. “We dealt with the wildfires ourselves.” “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people working on the actual impacts of climate change here and now. That seems like a loophole and a need that we can fill.”
The Fire Map identifies several steps Wu and her husband can take to protect their home.
This includes raising the canopy around the structure, cutting down a grove of bamboo, removing a large tree right next to the house, reducing the size of the shrubbery and grass around the house, and laying out granite. Degradable, not flammable. .
“I’ve always meant to just love going out there with a tape measure and measuring things, but you know, you’re busy, you’re lazy, and I’ve never done that,” Wu said.
Jahan Khanna is a serial entrepreneur with the newest startup, Firemaps, helping tough homeowners fight wildfires.
Courtesy of Fire Map
Wu and her husband decided to follow the recommendations, and after two working days, the contractors were able to complete the job. When she got a discount for her friend, Wu said she paid $4,000 for the job.
“Nothing can stop your house from burning down if the fire gets really severe,” Wu said. “There’s always a chance of it happening, but I just want to make sure I’ve taken all possible precautions. Anything beyond that isn’t really within my control.”
Once the job was done, Firemaps did another 3D rendering of the house. The company verifies that the work was done properly and communicates that to homeowners insurance as well as the local fire department and anyone else that needs to know, Khanna said.
Since climate change is such an intractable global problem, everyone will have to take steps to protect themselves, says Khanna.
“People’s first tendency is to stay away,” Khanna said. “But people need to understand that this is a large-scale crisis and it’s not going to go away.” “Without us doing that hard work, it will continue to get worse. We have to deal with this problem or it will get worse.”
