SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jupiter, the leading provider of predictive data and analytics for climate risk and resilience, today announced a major expansion of its work in Japan—adding an industry leading Japan-based venture investor MPower Partners. MPower is Japan's first ESG-focused global venture capital firm and the first female-led VC firm in Japan.
Jupiter also reaffirmed its plans to open a regional office in the country and recruit a Japan Country Manager to serve the growing number of enterprise customers in Asia, while also revealing details about its work with one of Japan’s largest banks.
“Japan is among the most advanced nations in the world in understanding and adapting to climate change,” said Rich Sorkin, CEO of Jupiter. “Our growing work and partnerships in Japan are central to our strategy. We intend to deepen our presence in the country by establishing a Japan office which will support customers in Japan and the rest of Asia, and we are in the process of recruiting a full-time Japan Country Manager. Additionally, as Jupiter continues to fortify our position as one of the world's premier ESG companies, we are thrilled for MPower to support us in both these priorities.”
Clearvision Ventures and MPower Partners are co-leading an ongoing funding round that Jupiter will announce in the coming weeks. MPower, headed by former Goldman Sachs Japan Vice Chair and Chief Japan Equity Strategist Kathy Matsui, will support Jupiter’s ongoing business in Japan and champion Jupiter’s growing ESG practice. Clearvision, which focuses on data and software companies with a meaningful impact on sustainability, invested in Jupiter due to their strong conviction that Jupiter is and will continue to be the category leading company for understanding risk from climate change.
“We’ve reached an inflection point in our relationship with climate change, and Jupiter is the kind of forward-looking, technically sophisticated company that MPower Partners wants to work with, and help succeed,” Matsui said. “As climate change accelerates and more people in the private and public sector desperately seek insight about future impacts of extreme weather on people, assets, economies, and societies, Jupiter’s work becomes increasingly indispensable.”
Jupiter’s Japanese expansion also includes accelerating work with longstanding customers and partners, especially insurance leader MS&AD Insurance Group —a Jupiter investor and customer—as well as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), one of Japan’s largest banks. SMBC, with reported worldwide assets of USD$2.1 trillion, will use Jupiter’s analytics to create a global risk map and analyze the risk of flooding at its approximately 100,000 domestic and international lending hubs. Based on the results, the company will also consider providing consulting services to loan recipient companies on information disclosure and flood countermeasures.
Along with MPower’s investment, MS&AD Insurance Group and other Japan focused investors also increased their investments in the ongoing financing on a super pro rata basis. The company will announce full details in the coming weeks.
About Jupiter
Jupiter is the global leader in data and analytics services to make informed decisions to anticipate risk from extreme weather, sea-level rise, storm intensification and rising temperatures caused by short, medium and long-term climate change. Jupiter’s ClimateScore™ Intelligence Platform provides sophisticated, dynamic, hyper-local, current- hour-to-50-plus-year probabilistic risk analysis for weather in a changing climate. The company’s FloodScore™, HeatScore™, WindScore™, FireScore™, and ClimateScore Global™ services are used for climate-related risk assessment and management worldwide. Jupiter’s models are based on the latest science, as developed by the global Earth and Ocean Systems science community.
Jupiter offers commercial services to asset owners in critical infrastructure, financial services including insurance, banking and asset management, energy and real estate, and the public sector. These customers use Jupiter services for a broad range of applications, including capital planning, risk management, site selection, design requirements, supply chain management, investment valuations, and shareholder disclosures. For more information, please visit jupiterintel.com.
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