Startup Arbol Unveils AI and Blockchain-Powered Climate Insurance Platform

New York-based startup Arbol has unveiled a parametric insurance platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, developed in collaboration with the RiskStream Collaborative, which claims to be the biggest enterprise-level blockchain consortium of the insurance industry, Arbol told CoinDesk.

Parametric insurance schemes offer compensation for weather-related events such as storms and floods. The market is poised to triple in size according to Allied Market Research, in part due to uncertainty brought about by climate change.

The platform, dubbed dRe, is specifically designed for reinsurance, meaning insurance for insurance companies, and is currently focused towards severe storm catastrophes. "Leveraging validated weather data from leading decentralized climate data network, dClimate, and Chainlink’s industry-standard decentralized oracle network, the platform triggers a smart contract based on wind speed and location for specific peril events," the startup said in a statement sent to CoinDesk.

On top of that, "dRE leverages the Arbol risk framework and pricing platform, which has been powered by advanced artificial intelligence algorithms for efficient underwriting," said a company spokesperson.

The platform automates claim initiation, notifications and loss calculations, to increase the speed of payouts as well as enhance transparency in the system, said the statement.

Arbol shares a founder with dClimate, a decentralized marketplace for climate data. The insurtech firm raised a $9 million Series A round in January 2021, according to startup information platform Dealroom.

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