Class 3 Technologies, a climate resilience startup spun out of global engineering consultancy Arup, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to scale its next-generation software platform, Iris. The round was led by Powerhouse Ventures, with participation from Sustainable Future Ventures and Tailwind Futures. The company, which emerged from stealth with this announcement, aims to transform how organizations quantify and manage climate-related risks to buildings and infrastructure.
Class 3 Technologies was founded to address the growing demand for actionable, building-level climate risk insights. As climate-driven disasters such as floods, wildfires, and extreme weather events intensify, organizations that operate or invest in real estate are under increasing pressure to evaluate their vulnerability and resilience. Existing tools, primarily designed for financial risk reporting, fail to provide the level of detail required for informed decision-making. Traditional engineering assessments, while highly accurate, remain too expensive and time-consuming to apply at scale.
Iris, Class 3’s flagship platform, bridges this gap by integrating state-of-the-art engineering methodologies with scalable software architecture. It models how buildings respond to physical hazards—such as heat, wind, and seismic events—at the component level. The platform’s simulations provide detailed insights into vulnerabilities and potential interventions, empowering decision-makers to take proactive steps to mitigate risk.
The company’s founding team brings deep expertise in engineering and climate risk modeling. CEO and founder Ibbi Almufti, a structural engineer and former head of Arup’s Risk and Resilience practice, helped shape national and international strategies for quantifying and reducing climate and seismic risks. Class 3’s leadership also includes professionals with backgrounds in enterprise SaaS and venture development, ensuring the company’s ability to bridge technical rigor with scalable product delivery.
Arup Ventures, which incubates early-stage companies focused on transforming the built environment, played a key role in Class 3’s formation. Class 3’s technology evolved from Arup’s in-house innovation initiatives, where engineers and climate specialists collaborated to develop advanced models for structural resilience. The spinout enables Class 3 to expand the reach of its Iris platform beyond Arup’s client base, bringing its engineering-grade capabilities to a broader market.
Since its stealth phase, Iris has been adopted by a range of organizations—including technology firms, real estate investors, developers, insurers, and consultants—to support risk analysis, site selection, due diligence, and design optimization. The software’s detailed simulations and quantifiable metrics allow users to evaluate the cost-benefit of resilience measures before implementing them, making it a valuable tool for both short-term investment decisions and long-term planning.
How the funding will be used: With this funding, Class 3 plans to expand its product development and scale its deployment across industries and geographies. The company aims to become a foundational player in the growing climate technology ecosystem by providing the intelligence necessary for climate-resilient decision-making at scale.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re here to catalyze resilience action at scale. To measure resilience accurately we had to develop new damage and loss models built on first principles of engineering, down to the level of individual building components. With Iris, organizations can finally quantify building vulnerability and risk properly and simulate the benefits of resilience interventions to act decisively.”
Ibbi Almufti, Founder and CEO, Class 3 Technologies
“Iris is an innovative new software platform that will change the way organizations manage and protect their building and infrastructure portfolios. We believe Class 3’s team and technology uniquely position them to lead the next generation of resilience planning.”
Marie Thompson, Partner, Powerhouse Ventures
“Class 3 translates engineering excellence into accessible software for climate resilience. This launch is an exciting milestone for Arup Ventures, and we will continue building on this legacy, leveraging Iris to deliver best-in-class risk and resilience consultancy work that remains core to who we are.”
Ilana Judah, Americas Climate and Sustainability Leader, Arup
