Madison, Wisconsin-based Understory, a weather network and analytics company, announced it has raised $7.5 million in additional funding led by 4490 Ventures. Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund is a new investor in this round, which is an investment firm founded by former AOL CEO Steve Case.
With this round of funding, Understory is planning to expand its presence in the international agriculture market. Understory has deployed over 500 stations throughout five major metro areas in the US and the company is planning to expand nationally to 5,000 sensors by the end of 2019.
“This funding represents another step forward towards realizing our goal of disrupting the status quo when it comes to weather analysis,” said Understory CEO and co-founder Alex Kubicek. “It has taken a number of years and a lot of dedication from our team, but Understory is now positioned to truly enable a fundamental shift in how the insurance and agriculture industries utilize data to make informed weather-related decisions.”
Earlier this year, Understory had expanded internationally through a partnership with Monsanto — which is now owned by Bayer. Understory deployed weather stations in South America to measure rainfall, temperature, humidity, evapotranspiration, and growing degree units to make decisions around irrigation, harvest dates and times, and seed production.
“We at Bayer have seen the value that Understory provides to growers, using technology that adds a layer of hyper-local weather information in rural farming areas where local weather information is not as accurate,” explained interim head of Bayer Growth Ventures Jürgen Eckhardt. “We are eager to see how the company’s expansion can further enrich localized weather insights.”
Through its patented technology, Understory is able to provide the agriculture market with actionable insights that radar, satellite, and remote sensing technologies are unable to deliver.
“Understory represents innovation at its finest,” 4490 Ventures managing director Greg Robinson commented. “The technology developed by Understory has real potential to redefine multi-billion dollar markets while empowering environmental efficiencies that impact our global food supply. That’s a winning combination we are proud to be investing in over the long-term.”
And Understory is able to analyze and process the data it collects to create real-time datasets, views, and actionable information based on historical, current, and forecasted weather events to provide better insights and early detection of risks.
Understory’s composite of granular weather data has applications across a wide range of markets including agriculture, forecasting, and risk mitigation.
“Understory is powering innovation in weather data infrastructure with its sensor networks and on-the-ground insights,” added Revolution CEO and chairman Steve Case. “We look forward to seeing how Understory continues to leverage regional expertise and talent to redefine real-time weather information for insurance, agriculture, academics, utility companies, and more.”
