A technology pioneer offering weather insurance to millions of people just received $42 million in funding from investors including Khosla and Google. “With a firm belief that technology can create new markets and address vital global challenges, Khosla Ventures immediately recognized the potential of WeatherBill to fundamentally change the risk profile of the global agriculture industry,” said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures in a news release. “WeatherBill is one of those rare companies that has the leadership and vision to apply new technology to an ancient and daunting problem – weather’s impact on agriculture. Now WeatherBill can help farmers globally deal with the increasingly extreme weather brought on by climate change.”

According to WeatherBill’s CEO and co-founder David Friedberg global agriculture production is a $3 trillion a year industry and faces lots of risks from weather. Droughts in Russia and China and flooding in Australia have proven the need for this product he says. “More than 90 percent of crop losses are due to unexpected weather and climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events,” says Friedberg. “Dedicated to addressing this global concern, WeatherBill is applying the use of our technology platform  to become the first company to provide every farmer – from the developing world to the technologically sophisticated – with a simple and effective solution for removing weather-related risk from their financial profile, in order to support and ensure the sustainability of the global food supply.”

WeatherBill uses unique technology and extensive weather data to run large-scale weather simulations. That way they can sell personalized weather insurance products to people like Ohio soybean farmer Steve Wolters. “Nine years ago we had a very dry growing season in rural Ohio. A year later we experienced 14 inches of rain in 10 days.  The flip flop of weather from one year to the next is the biggest challenge farmers face,” Wolters said in a news release. “It makes sense to me to take advantage of WeatherBill’s automated weather insurance programs that pinpoint the weather conditions expected to affect my land and pay me if they happen.  Protecting my seasonal profits with this product, before I even plant a seed, greatly reduces the risk I take every year and allows me to invest in improving my growing operation.”