Convective Capital just closed an $85 million fund to back startups building disaster resilience technologies, marking a strategic expansion beyond its original wildfire-focused mandate. The climate tech venture firm, which emerged from the Y Combinator network, is betting that the intersection of climate change and natural disasters represents one of the most urgent investment opportunities in the coming decade. With insurance markets buckling under mounting climate losses and communities facing escalating disaster risks, Convective's broader mandate signals growing investor confidence in resilience tech as a category.
Convective Capital is doubling down on disaster resilience at a moment when climate-driven catastrophes are reshaping investment priorities across the tech industry. The firm's new $85 million fund represents a strategic pivot from its original fire tech thesis to a broader mandate encompassing floods, hurricanes, and the full spectrum of natural disasters that are intensifying as the planet warms.
The timing couldn't be more pointed. Insurance giants are pulling out of high-risk markets from California to Florida, leaving homeowners scrambling and creating what some investors see as a massive opportunity for technology to fill the gap. Traditional risk models are breaking down as historical data loses predictive power in a rapidly changing climate, and that's where Convective sees its portfolio companies stepping in.
Convective originally launched with a laser focus on wildfire technology, backing startups developing everything from early detection systems to fire-resistant materials. But as the firm's partners watched disaster losses mount across categories—not just fires but flooding, extreme weather events, and infrastructure failures—the narrow mandate started to feel limiting. The expansion to disaster resilience more broadly reflects a recognition that these challenges are interconnected and require integrated solutions.
The fund will target early-stage companies building technologies for disaster monitoring, prediction, prevention, and recovery. That includes remote sensing and AI-powered risk modeling, hardening infrastructure against extreme weather, rapid response coordination platforms, and tools that help communities rebuild more resilient systems after disasters strike. It's a thesis that spans hardware, software, and services, united by the goal of reducing both human suffering and economic losses.
What makes Convective's approach distinctive is its connection to the Y Combinator ecosystem, which has increasingly turned its attention to climate tech over the past few years. YC's model of backing very early-stage founders means Convective gets first look at startups emerging from those cohorts, and the firm has built a reputation for providing specialized expertise that generalist VCs can't match in this domain.
The $85 million fund size positions Convective as a meaningful player in climate adaptation, which has historically lagged behind climate mitigation in attracting venture capital. While billions have flowed into renewable energy and electric vehicles, resilience technologies have been chronically underfunded despite serving communities facing immediate climate impacts. That imbalance is starting to shift as limited partners recognize that adaptation is not just necessary but potentially lucrative.
For entrepreneurs in the disaster resilience space, Convective's expanded mandate creates a clear focal point for capital and expertise. The firm brings operational knowledge of working with municipalities, utilities, and insurance companies—critical relationships for startups trying to navigate complex regulatory environments and risk-averse enterprise buyers. Portfolio companies also benefit from Convective's network of climate scientists, emergency management professionals, and policy experts who can provide technical validation and market access.
The competitive landscape is evolving quickly. While Convective is among the first dedicated disaster resilience funds, larger climate tech investors like Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital are also allocating capital to adaptation technologies. The difference is focus—Convective's team lives and breathes disaster resilience in a way that generalist firms can't replicate, and that specialization matters when evaluating highly technical solutions for complex, life-or-death problems.
The fund comes at a critical juncture for climate adaptation. Federal infrastructure spending through programs like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is flowing toward resilience projects, creating both market pull and validation for private sector solutions. At the same time, mounting disaster costs are forcing states and municipalities to get creative about risk reduction, making them more receptive to novel technologies that would have seemed too experimental just a few years ago.
For Convective's portfolio companies, the path to scale involves proving that resilience can be both effective and economically sustainable. The best disaster is the one that doesn't happen, which makes ROI calculations challenging but not impossible. Companies that can demonstrate clear risk reduction—measured in lives saved, property protected, or recovery time shortened—are finding receptive audiences among insurers, governments, and infrastructure operators desperate for solutions.
Convective Capital's $85 million raise marks a maturation point for disaster resilience as an investment category. As climate impacts accelerate and traditional insurance models strain, the startups in this fund will be building the infrastructure and technologies that determine which communities survive and thrive through the coming decades of climate chaos. For founders tackling these challenges, Convective's expanded mandate and specialized expertise offer a rare combination of capital and domain knowledge precisely when both are most needed. The real test will be whether these portfolio companies can scale fast enough to match the pace of climate change itself.
