Sensible Weather Designs Trip Insurance: Travel Startup Funding This Week
Photo Credit: Two national park rangers look at the weather at McDonald Lake at Glacier National Park in November 2018. Flickr / Creative Commons / Source: U.S. National Park Service.
Skift Take
One of many startups that recently raised funding was Sensible Weather, which creates trip cancellation policies for unexpected storms and temperatures. It's a sign that all the talk about "big data" is delivering useful products at last.
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at jd@skift.com if you have funding news.During the winter break and early January, travel startups announced more than $10 million in funding.
>>Sensible Weather, which sells products that reimburses travelers for in-trip experiences specifically for bad weather, has closed $4 million in a seed round of funding.
Wonder Ventures and Walkabout Ventures led the round.
The startup, based in Santa Monica, has received $10 million in total financing to date. It previously received a National Science Foundation grant.
The company analyzes weather data in an era of climate change to predict storms. Then it helps create policies that companies can sell to travelers offering reimbursements in case of poor weather, such as when rain or unusual temperatures might ruin an outdoor activity.
The company doesn't offer trip cancellation insurance as much as it reimburses "in trip" costs for experiential losses.
For example, if you secured a Sensible Weather Guarantee for your hotel in Hawaii, and it rained for three-plus hours one day, you would receive that da
