San Francisco, California-based Planette, a graduate of Techstars Seattle’s latest accelerator has recently raised $2.4 million in a seed funding round led by Audacious Ventures with participation from Jetstream, Dash Fund, and Graham & Walker.
Planette offers AI-backed technology to help businesses prevent weather and climate risks that could impact their resources and operations.
Planette claims that its offering is different from other weather forecasting startups as it focuses on ‘near-term forecasts’ – generating quarterly or seasonal reports.
Speaking of the core specialty, Planette in its Techstars Demo Day pitch in January, said,
“Planette provides the critical foundational intelligence needed for climate change adaptation,”
“Our forecasts provide detailed year-to-year granularity, at 25-km resolution covering the globe, through a convenient, easy-to-access data API ready to incorporate into existing operational workflows.” the company added
Founded in 2022 by co-founders Dr. Hansi Singh and Dr. Kalai Ramea having combined expertise in climate and atmospheric sciences, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Quantitative Modeling.
Dr. Hansi Singh, the CEO of Planette is a former professor of physical climate science at the University of Victoria, Canada. She holds a Ph.D. and Masters from the University of Washington, and was previously a fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Dr. Kalai Ramea, the CTO is the former associate director of the Palo Alto Research Center. She holds a Ph.D. in quantitative modeling from the University of California.
According to GeekWire, Planette garnered early-stage traction in the energy and utilities sector with three letters of intent, a pilot with the largest public municipal utility in the U.S., and negotiations for a partnership with the United Nations.
Speaking of their decision to invest in Planette, Marius Ciocirlan, managing director of Techstars Seattle in a press release said,
“The reason I decided to invest in Hansi and Kalai was because of their incredible science and AI engineering skills,”
“Their ability to develop storytelling and sales strategies, alongside their technical expertise, significantly impacted their fundraising success.” Marius added
