Convective Capital announced the closing of its $85 million Fund II, expanding the firm’s investment focus from wildfire technology into the broader disaster resilience market. The fund will back startups building technologies designed to protect critical physical infrastructure and systems from growing climate and disaster-related risks.
The firm said the combination of rising global temperatures and aging infrastructure has accelerated the frequency and severity of disasters, noting that the U.S. now experiences a billion-dollar disaster approximately every 18 days, a pace that has tripled since the 1980s. According to Convective, the economic impact of these disasters now exceeds $1 trillion annually.
Originally launched as a specialist investor in wildfire technology, Convective said its experience working with utilities, insurance companies, governments, and infrastructure owners demonstrated that organizations exposed to physical-world risks are increasingly adopting new technologies to measure, reduce, and insure against disasters.
The company highlighted that leaders from these industries gather annually at the Red Sky Summit in San Francisco to evaluate emerging resilience technologies, while Fund I portfolio companies have already generated hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts focused on improving disaster preparedness and mitigation.
With Fund II, Convective plans to make approximately 18 investments across pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages while deploying larger check sizes than its first fund. The fund’s investments span sectors including supply chain resilience, manufacturing, forestry, infrastructure design, and grid resilience.
Current Fund II portfolio companies include Drafted, Edge, The Lumber Manufactory, and Voltair.
Convective said Fund II received backing from organizations and investors including Arbor Day Foundation, John Collison, Patrick Collison, Pathstone, StepStone Group, and WovenEarth Ventures, along with insurance companies, foundations, and a pension fund.
The firm also said it has expanded its operational resources for founders, including the launch of Disasterproof, a storytelling platform focused on resilience companies. Convective added that its Updraft practitioner network now includes more than 10,000 members and has generated over $100 million in revenue opportunities for portfolio companies.
KEY QUOTES:
“Convective began as a specialist in wildfire technology backing founders audacious enough to take on this challenge. Our work there confirmed that entities with exposure to the physical world, utilities, insurance companies, government and asset owners, are so desperate for solutions that they are willing to try new things.”
“That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve raised $85M for our second fund.
We’ll make a similar number of investments (~18) as in Fund I, but we’re writing bigger checks across pre-seed, seed and Series A and expanding our focus from wildfire to the disaster resilience market.”
Bill Clerico, Founder and Managing Partner, Convective Capital
