Stand, a company reimagining insurance for climate-impacted properties, announced the launch of its debut product: California homeowners insurance that insures and fortifies properties to be resilient to wildfire. Launched earlier this year, Stand is backed by top-tier reinsurers, an AM Best A- Rating, and $30 million in funding from Inspired Capital, Lowercarbon, Equal Ventures & Convective Capital. With this foundation, the company is prepared to write over $2 billion in home coverage within its first year.
Stand insurance offers homeowners insurance for climate-impacted properties, where wildfire, flood, and wind impact coverage. It is no secret that the insurance market is in a climate crisis. And amidst the fourth worst fire season in California history, insurers are leaving large geographies to avoid fire risk. Many homeowners are now under-insured, self-insured, or on government plans of last resort. The problem is not unique to wildfire: nearly half of all homes ($22 trillion worth) in the U.S. are at severe or extreme risk of damage from climate-driven events.
Stand has revamped insurance for this new era, offering a solution that protects property while insuring it. And by combining expertise in fire, fuel, land, and structures with advanced physics and AI modeling, Stand provides property owners with tailored risk-mitigation plans. These plans prioritize specific improvements like replacing mulch with gravel in a critical area, or replacing a Juniper tree with a Maple to reduce risks effectively. Quantifiable risk reductions translate into more accurate pricing, enabling Stand to offer policies in areas others can’t or won’t serve—a win for both homeowners and the company.
Stand takes a highly interdisciplinary approach across insurance, wildfire, science and consumer distribution and was founded by a team of experts in these domains:
— Dan Preston, Co-founder, CEO. Dan was the former CEO at Metromile
— Jason Mueller, Co-founder, CPO. Jason was the former CPO at Policygenius
— Sam Shank, Co-founder. Former CEO at HotelTonight (acquired by Airbnb)
— Bill Clerico, Co-founder. Former CEO at WePay (acquired by JP Morgan), Managing Partner at Convective Capital
KEY QUOTES:
“We are able to build a digital twin of properties and use physics to simulate how extreme weather and disasters would impact them, an approach that has never been used before in the insurance industry. We believe the only viable path forward is to re-think how we approach risk itself. At Stand, we use advanced modeling and AI to make homes safer and to protect homeowners in the face of growing climate challenges.”
– Dan Preston, Co-Founder and CEO of Stand
