By Chad Byers, General Partner and Co-founder at Susa Ventures
Humba Ventures is excited to announce our investment in WindBorne Systems (Windborne), a weather and climate tech company with an ultra cost-effective balloon-based data source. The $6m seed round was led by Footwork, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Pear VC, Ubiquity Ventures, and Harvest Ventures. We’re thrilled to welcome John, Andrey, Joan, Kai and the rest of the WindBorne team to the Humba Family.
At Humba Ventures, we strive to adapt to the shifting needs of founders and the emergence of high-impact sectors and business models. WindBorne perfectly aligns with this mission. While weather prediction is often associated with planning our weekend or vacation activities, its impact goes far beyond that. Accurate weather prediction provides invaluable information that influences decision-making, enhances safety, optimizes resource management, and enables efficient planning across multiple sectors of the economy. Furthermore, weather is one of the largest variables in our economy, impacting things such as energy prices.
Imagine if a five, ten, or fourteen-day forecast could be as accurate as the two-day forecast we have today. The benefits would be substantial, benefiting sectors such as agriculture and farming, transportation and travel, energy management, construction and infrastructure, personal safety, and emergency preparedness. The improved accuracy and reliability of weather forecasting would have far-reaching positive effects on local and global economies, as well as the overall well-being of humanity.
“Businesses and governments rely on accurate weather forecasts to make critical decisions, yet all too often the weather forecast is wrong. Everyone I talk to has a story about bad weather causing a travel nightmare — the stakes are even higher on a state, national or continental level,” said John Dean, CEO and co-founder of WindBorne. “This new investment will supercharge our data collection as we seek to fill the data gap for weather globally.”
We are excited to support this team on their journey to make significant advancements in weather data collection, modeling and forecasting. Together, we aim to create a future where accurate weather prediction is a driving force for positive change in various industries, benefiting society as a whole.
Our Investment in WindBorne Systems was originally published in Susa Ventures on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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