Climate Risk InsurTech Brings Blockchain and Smart Contracts to Financial Risk Solutions

BTP’s blockchain management platform Sextant for DAML selected by  The Demex Group

November 19

In the wake of climate change, the term ‘climate resilience’ is becoming more mainstream. Volatile weather conditions are increasingly making it difficult for commercial property owners to allocate budgets for various property management services e.g., snow removal, de-icing walkways, landscaping and more. With unpredictable weather patterns, some companies are going millions of dollars over budget simply because they could not anticipate significantly more snowfall than previous years or didn’t anticipate additional landscaping needs to recover from hurricanes.

The Demex Group, an InsurTech focused on climate resilience, developed technology to help companies navigate weather risks. By analyzing massive amounts of weather, climate and geographical data, plus powerful computer models, Demex can make tens of millions of calculations needed to produce tailored assessments. Today, Demex announced it is bringing blockchain and DAML smart contracts from Digital Asset to its suite of financial risk solutions, using BTP’s blockchain management platform, Sextant for DAML, to deploy and manage the infrastructure.

Commenting on the news, Ed Byrns, President & CEO of The Demex Group said, “We chose DAML as our smart contract language as it enables us to develop multi-party business processes rapidly. As a result, we can develop bespoke financial risk solutions for our clients more efficiently and competitively.” 

Byrns added, "We selected Sextant for DAML to allow us to fully realize its benefits by providing us with a stable platform to build upon, accelerating our development and reducing our time to market.”

Sextant for DAML is a software product that radically simplifies the deployment and management of both blockchain networks and smart contracts. Sextant for DAML abstracts the underlying operational complexity, providing an enterprise grade platform that frees up companies to take full advantage of the power of DAML and focus on addressing the needs of their business. 

"This is an excellent case study of the business value of blockchain and smart contracts - by enabling competing risk providers to collaborate and deliver customized solutions to a broader market,” added Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP. “The Demex Group is lowering the barrier to entry for businesses to develop climate resiliency.”

Demex operates at the intersection of banking and insurance. The company brings together decades of experience across technology, finance, risk management, capital markets, commodities, insurance, and climate science to develop cutting-edge technology and customized financial solutions that mitigate unique weather risks and seize climate-linked business opportunities.

In August 2020, Demex closed a $4.2 million funding round, securing seed investment from venture capital firms Anthemis and IA Capital Group.

Click to read the full press release here.