Already powering the world’s most accurate forecasting model,
WindBorne Systems’ mission is to mitigate the most imminently
dangerous effects of climate change: extreme weather and weather
uncertainty
WindBorne Systems, the world’s largest atmospheric sensing
system and most accurate AI weather model, announced today $15
million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures, which earlier
led WindBorne’s pre-seed round in 2019 and will take a board seat.
Existing investors Footwork VC, Pear VC, and Convective Capital
also participated in the round.
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WindBorne weather sensing balloons gather
50X - 150X more data per dollar than conventional weather balloons.
(Graphic: Business Wire)
The funding round comes three months after WindBorne unveiled
its deep learning-based weather forecast model, named WeatherMesh,
which has unseated Google DeepMind’s GraphCast as the most accurate
medium-range global forecast model in the world. (WindBorne
publishes real-time benchmarks for its model.)
The venture funding complements millions of dollars in revenue
from government partnerships and contracts, including both research
and development efforts and data-as-a-service contracts for
WindBorne’s atmospheric observations.
“Just as the privatization of space catalyzed huge leaps over
the past few decades, we’re driving an equally exciting shift in
weather technology,” said John Dean, WindBorne co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer. “Collaboration across government, research, and
private companies will play an essential role, marrying the best of
commercial innovation with global systems that can deliver a
tangible, positive impact for every individual.”
“The emergence of generative AI and WindBorne’s AI-native tech
stack will enable us to deliver a new, smarter kind of weather
experience that’s bespoke and co-creative in ways that software has
never been before,” said Kai Marshland, WindBorne co-founder and
Chief Product Officer. “The ability to cost-effectively deliver
these insights across any industry and company presents an enormous
opportunity to not only reduce emissions through smarter energy
use, but also to help every community better adapt to the extreme
weather that’s intensifying in the wake of climate change.”
“AI is fundamentally changing weather prediction, which hasn't
been meaningfully disrupted since the 1990s, but is essential to
better understand and address the impacts of climate change,” said
Sven Strohband, partner at Khosla Ventures. “WindBorne’s novel
balloon hardware coupled with autonomous flight software enables
them to collect data no one else can, training a new generation of
AI-based weather models.”
WindBorne’s data advantage
Since its founding in 2019, WindBorne has executed more than
1,000 flight missions via its global network of autonomous,
long-duration atmospheric sensing balloons. The company now runs
the most comprehensive, most cost-effective, and most sustainable
atmospheric sensing system on the planet. Each balloon weighs just
a few pounds, most of which is sand ballast. The balloons are
equipped with proprietary sensors and customized avionics that
enable real-time communication and navigation.
WindBorne balloons gather 10x more data per dollar over land,
and 150x more data per dollar over oceans, compared to the
alternatives: traditional, single-use weather balloons called
radiosondes, which only fly for a few hours and gather a single
data slice over land, and dropsondes, small sensing devices
manually released from aircraft over oceans.
By comparison, WindBorne’s balloons use a fraction of the
materials of traditional balloons and can fly for 40+ days. And
unlike traditional balloons, WindBorne’s balloons are capable of
changing altitude to gather targeted data slices, allowing them to
collect critical atmospheric data anywhere. With each balloon
navigating via directed paths, they can readily travel over oceans,
deserts, and the Earth’s most remote places.
Traditional weather models are not equipped to meet the
climate challenge
As extreme weather intensifies, the world faces an imminent
environmental data and forecast modeling gap. The World Economic
Forum (WEF) named extreme weather and weather uncertainty the
biggest risk to businesses over the next decade. Forecasting
inaccuracies continue to exacerbate loss of human life, as well as
hundreds of billions in damages and uninsured losses every year. In
2022, for example, Hurricane Ian alone caused over 160 deaths and
$115 billion in damages.
Better forecasts are essential to mitigating these losses;
however, they hinge on filling significant real-time weather data
gaps. Most noteworthy, according to the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO), the globe lacks data for 85% of the atmosphere.
WindBorne operates the only platform that can fully and
cost-effectively close this gap.
Beyond data, there is also a key, new opportunity to improve
forecast speed and accuracy through rapidly unfolding AI modeling
technology. WindBorne innovates across the complete weather
technology stack from proprietary data collection to AI-based
modeling, making it uniquely poised to transform end-to-end weather
intelligence.
Building a proprietary foundation model for weather
WindBorne will use the new funding to accelerate engineering
across its technology stack:
- Scaling real-time data collection via its balloon
constellation. WindBorne’s goal is to operate 10,000 balloons
concurrently by 2028, offering complete global coverage with just
1/25th of the balloons launched globally today.
- Honing its autonomous flight software. Across its
constellation of thousands of balloons, WindBorne will be able to
dramatically enhance profile targeting and endurance.
- Advancing its record-breaking global AI-based weather
forecast model. With its own foundation model, WindBorne will
forecast more weather variables and increase forecast detail.
The company will also expand its technical headcount as well as
strategic revenue teams, such as proposals and business development
as it branches into the commercial sector and international
governments.
WindBorne continues to expand its years-long work with U.S.
government partners such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Association (NOAA), National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR), the U.S. Air Force, and the Office of Naval Research via
its data-as-a-service offering. The company is now entering the
commercial sector with its forecast offering, which has also been
backed by the U.S. Air Force.
WindBorne has already fielded significant interest from a vast
range of industries impacted by weather, such as agriculture,
logistics, aviation, utilities, energy grid operations, live events
& travel, and insurance. The company is now developing its
first commercial trials for its forecast offering this year.
WindBorne’s team has uniquely fused “hard” engineering with
meteorological expertise. Many employees have roots in the Stanford
Space Initiative, while its head of meteorology is a veteran of The
Weather Company.
WindBorne is also backed by Ubiquity Ventures, Susa Ventures,
Jetstream Ventures, and Harvest Venture Partners, among others.
About WindBorne
WindBorne is an environmental and weather intelligence company
revolutionizing humanity’s ability to mitigate the most immediately
destructive aspect of climate change: extreme weather and weather
uncertainty. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company designs,
manufactures, and operates the world’s only constellation of smart,
long-duration sensing balloons and powers the leading AI global
weather forecasts. WindBorne originated as a Stanford Space
Initiative project and was founded in 2019.
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