Climate Resilience in Property Insurance: Our Investment in Faura

“Whoever said “youth is wasted on the young” never met Valkyrie Holmes.”

- Commercial Observer, July 2024

We first met Valkyrie Holmes when she was a candidate for our 2024 Accelerator program. During our initial conversations, she presented a passionate vision for property insurance that would enable insurers to build profitable portfolios in disaster-prone regions while providing homeowners clear pathways to comprehensive coverage. By the end of our 22-week Accelerator program, Valkyrie had propelled her business to new heights while leaving her mark with an inspiring pitch of her business at our Demo Day.

At 20 years old, with stints at NASA and SpaceX already under her belt, Valkyrie possesses a rare combination of technical depth and industry insight that takes most founders decades to develop. Her approach is deeply analytical yet refreshingly creative. From the get-go, we recognized her ability to access and convert customers in the complex insurance industry.

The urgency and timeliness of Faura’s mission becomes clearer every day. The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have destroyed tens of thousands of properties, with projected economic losses in the hundreds of billions. Insurance companies are retreating en masse from climate-vulnerable regions, leaving millions of homeowners struggling to find coverage. Traditional property insurance methods are failing precisely when they're needed most. As climate disasters become more severe and frequent, the insurance industry is searching for solutions to assess and price risk accurately.

Enter Faura. The all-in-one tool for analyzing and incentivizing the natural disaster resilience of homes and commercial structures.

Rather than focusing solely on predicting where disasters might strike, Faura’s technology analyzes the survivability of individual structures across five major perils: wildfire, hurricane, hail, flood, and earthquake. This property-specific analysis, combined with actionable mitigation recommendations, creates a powerful feedback loop that benefits both insurers and homeowners.

Faura’s model clearly resonates. Since graduating from the MetaProp Accelerator, the company has conducted over 10,000 property assessments nationwide while achieving a 100% conversion rate from pilot to paid customer. Perhaps most remarkably, Valkyrie and her team have accomplished this primarily through organic growth, with 90% of business coming through LinkedIn engagement – a testament to her ability to build trust and credibility in an industry typically resistant to change.

Today, we're excited to announce MetaProp's additional investment in Faura by joining their $3.5M Seed round, co-led by Harlem Capital and Building Ventures, with participation from Triple Five and Dorm Room Fund. We’re thrilled to partner with Valkyrie and her team to help insurers and homeowners create a more resilient world.

Further reading: "Faura Raises $3.5M Seed Round to Transform Climate Risk and Property Insurance" via Faura