Sensible Weather is building an ‘oh no, it’s raining while I’m on holiday’ insurance product

You save for months to be able to go on a fun holiday, and then you spend nine days stuck in your Airbnb hoping the little umbrella on your drink will help against the rain falling from the heavens. Sound familiarly disappointing and disappointingly familiar? Sensible Weather just raised $12 million to build a product to save the day, on the slogan “Sunshine, Guraranteed.”

The product is pretty neat; you pay for its insurance policy, and if the snow is too watery, your outdoor concert is washed out or your dreams of escaping with drinking pina coladas while getting caught in the rain are squashed, they’ve got your back. (The company would not confirm if it would pay out if the sun shines when you do prefer being caught in the rain.)

“With Weather Guarantee attach rates approaching 50% in early partner channels, we’re converting at about 5x higher than traditional travel insurance”, said Nick Cavanaugh, founder and CEO of Sensible Weather. “We’re doubling down on our investments in this new embedded fintech service to accelerate our goals of driving ancillary revenue for partners and enhancing the in-destination experience for travelers. With climate increasingly impacting vacations and outdoor experiences, Sensible’s Weather Guarantees offers consumers peace of mind when booking reservations online by giving them the option to recoup their experiential losses when bad weather interferes with plans.”

Since its launch early this year, Sensible has sold thousands of Weather Guarantees via its growing roster of hospitality and outdoor recreation partners. Consumers purchase Weather Guarantee protection when booking travel reservations and ticketed attractions online and if a weather event, such as rain, is forecasted to occur during the covered experience, Sensible automatically sends a reimbursement. Guarantee payments are processed immediately, based on the number of hours the experience is negatively impacted by weather.

The new capital will allow Sensible to grow its deep pool of top engineering and scientific talent, accelerate the development of its proprietary climate data and risk analytics platform and expand its Weather Guarantee offering into international markets.

The round was led by San Francisco-based Infinity Ventures, with participation from Certares Ventures, existing investors Wonder Ventures and Group1001, as well as executives from hospitality and fintech pioneers Airbnb, Pacaso, Plaid and Toast.