Hurricanes Helen and Milton occurred one after another, causing catastrophic losses to several southern states, and insurance adjusters faced a huge task. For decades, these adjusters have used the same methods to assess property damage after natural disasters. They visited homes and used small aircraft equipped with high-resolution cameras to view damage to roofs, buildings and neighborhoods. These aircraft speed up the process and help prioritize specific claims.
However, new technologies using drones, artificial intelligence and weather balloons aim to modernize and speed up the process. Near Space Labs, a startup in Brooklyn, New York, has invented “Swifts,” stratospheric artificial intelligence robotic cameras that can fly on weather balloons. Skylab is using Swift to assess property risks, but by next year they will be deployed to assess damage from climate-related disasters.
“With our balloons and Swifts, insurance companies are able to obtain information immediately after a disaster, assess the damage and pay claims within days,” said Rema Matevosyan, CEO of Near Space Labs , not weeks and months.
Giant weather balloons fly at twice the altitude of aircraft cruising altitude. According to the company, the cameras can provide high-resolution imagery covering thousands of square miles.
“Our balloon can capture 800,000 drone catches in one flight,” Matevosyan said. “A plane will fly back and forth in a snake pattern for weeks to capture data that we can capture in a matter of hours. This means we can provide a faster, better and cheaper service to our customers.”
And it’s not just for after a storm. Insurance and reinsurers, such as Swiss Re, are using near space to help them understand and price risk. Detailed images of roof features, surrounding vegetation and defensible spaces are fed into the client’s AI profile. This segment is particularly attractive to investors.
“If you can really use artificial intelligence for risk analysis, you need cheap, abundant sources of imagery, and we believe that for at least the next decade, near space may be the cheapest way to do that,” SpaceLab Investments said Shaun Abrahamson, managing partner at Third Sphere.
In addition to Third Sphere, Near Space Labs is backed by Crosslink Capital, Wireframe Ventures, IAG Firemark Ventures, Toyota Ventures and Leadout Capital. It has raised $24 million in funding.
Near space has flown more than 1,000 commercial missions to assess risks, but it is still ramping up disaster response operations. By next year, it will be large enough to respond immediately to major climate catastrophic events, Matvorsian said. The entire Swift system can be packed into a suitcase and can be shipped to any carrier.
“The way our operators activate the platform is to flip a switch, connect it to a helium balloon and let go. Everything else happens automatically,” she said.
CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this article.
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