Understory Honored as AgTech Insurance Solution of the Year

Annual Awards Program Recognizes Innovation in Agricultural Technologies Around the Globe

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Sep 10, 2020, 08:01 ET

MADISON, Wis., Sept. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Understory, a leading provider of parametric insurance for severe weather risks, has been awarded 'AgTech Insurance Solution of the Year' by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence company.

The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global agricultural technology market. This year's program attracted more than 1,750 nominations from 15 different countries. Understory was recognized for transforming agricultural insurance with its parametric hail insurance product, which is powered by the company's global network of innovative Dot weather sensors.

Since 2005, the vast majority of economic losses caused by severe weather were uninsured, according to a recent analysis by Aon. As climate change accelerates, this protection gap is only growing worse. No industry is more vulnerable than agriculture, leaving countless livelihoods at risk and in need of new insurance solutions.

With its growing, global network of ground-based Dot weather sensors, Understory can assess and price any weather risk in the world with precision. The Dot weather sensor is the most accurate, maintenance-free and fraud-proof weather sensor that can be affordably deployed. After accumulating an unrivaled database of severe weather events, Understory launched its first parametric hail insurance product for the U.S. retail automotive market in November 2019. The company plans to offer parallel products with expanded perils to the agricultural market later this year.

"As severe weather risk increases, many farmers in some of the most vulnerable parts of the world can no longer find coverage. The policies that remain are often unaffordable, even with heavy government subsidies, and require lengthy, burdensome claims processes," said Darcy Pawlik, Vice President of Global Product and Agriculture at Understory. "Our technology is delivering a step change in agricultural insurance and closing the protection gap. We're thrilled to be recognized by AgTech Breakthrough."

Understory matches machine-learned experiences with controlled storm simulations, allowing the company to associate each weather event with the resulting crop damage. When severe weather strikes and triggers the parametric insurance policy, Understory detects it and triggers a payout automatically. Understory's data-driven approach ensures capital can quickly flow where it is needed most after a disaster, protecting the world's food supply.

The mission of the AgTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize innovation in a range of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more.

"Understory's one-of-a-kind solution is bringing about a paradigm shift in the crop insurance industry," said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough Awards. "The company's data-driven solution is helping protect the world's food supply as growers are increasingly impacted by extreme weather conditions caused by global climate change. We are honored to award Understory the award for AgTech Insurance Solution of the Year for their industry-changing agriculture insurance product."

ABOUT UNDERSTORY:
Understory is the first company with proprietary weather sensors to successfully offer parametric insurance products covering severe weather risks like hail and frost. Understory's unprecedented, ground-truth weather data, delivered by its accurate, maintenance-free, and fraud-proof weather sensors ensures quick claim payouts to climate-vulnerable industries including auto and agriculture. Understory is based in Madison, Wisconsin. To learn more, visit www.understoryweather.com.

ABOUT AGTECH BREAKTHROUGH AWARDS:
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural technologies, services, companies and products. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, automation, IoT and robotics, food quality, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.

Media Contact:
Mike Pilarz
Head of Marketing, Understory
[email protected]
+1 (608) 571-2738

SOURCE Understory, Inc.