Viennese startup refinq receives 2.2 million euros in seed funding

The Viennese startup refinq has closed a seed financing round of 2.2 million euros. The round consists of 1.9 million euros in equity and FFG funding of 300,000 euros.

The lead investors are aws Gründungsfonds and Symbia VC. Fund F and business angel Olivier Schwab are also involved. refinq is using the capital to further expand its software platform, which enables companies to identify, evaluate and actively manage physical climate and natural risks at asset level.

Why traditional risk models are no longer sufficient

Extreme weather, flooding, heat or soil erosion affect companies today in very concrete terms: individual plants, substations, warehouses or supply chain nodes. Traditional risk models usually work with aggregated probabilities and abstract scenarios. However, they do not answer the crucial operational question:

Why is this specific asset vulnerable at this exact location and what does this mean financially?

Climate resilience is becoming an essential component of modern risk management for companies. refinq offers precisely the operational depth that companies need for the strategic handling of natural and climate risks.

Markus Jandrinitsch, aws Start-up Fund

From environmental factors to controllable business risks

refinq combines high-resolution geodata with proprietary information on the structural vulnerability of locations. This turns environmental and climate factors into concrete, quantifiable risks that can be prioritized, compared and actively managed.

Companies can thus:

• Assess the risks of individual locations,
• prioritize investments and protective measures,
• set up more informed insurance strategies,
• and reduce default risks and future losses.

The platform goes beyond individual assets: customers analyze thousands of locations along entire value chains in order to systematically build resilience.

Already in use in industry and critical infrastructure

The approach is already impressing customers such as Wiener Stadtwerke, thyssenkrupp and Mayr-Melnhof. For critical infrastructure, industrial production sites and capital-intensive assets in particular, refinq provides a basis for decision-making that traditional risk models do not cover.

Instead of pure risk overviews, companies receive specific recommendations for action where preventive measures will have the greatest effect.

Prevention instead of pure damage management

Unlike many existing solutions, refinq starts before the damage occurs. Among other things, the platform analyzes

• Hydrology,
• land use,
• condition of ecosystems,

and makes visible how these factors influence the structural vulnerability of a location. Targeted adaptation and protection measures can be derived from this. Nature is thus transformed from an external risk factor into an operational control lever for resilient sites that can be used in the long term.

refinq addresses a clear market need with a scalable solution and a strong team. We see great potential to further scale the business model internationally.

Alex Burger, Symbia VC

Next steps

With the seed financing, refinq:

• further expand the platform technologically,
• integrate additional data sources,
• and scale its use by large industrial and infrastructure operators.

The aim is to establish physical risk intelligence as an integral part of corporate decision-making processes.

refinq is a Viennese start-up that helps companies to identify and actively manage physical risks from climate and natural changes at an early stage. The platform combines geodata with asset-specific vulnerability analysis and thus enables prevention-oriented, scalable risk management for industry and infrastructure.