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RockRose Risk raises $12.5 million to buy wildfire mitigation contractors
The Napa startup says its brokerage model has cut commercial premiums by about 21% on roughly $7 billion of insured property value since it began working with carriers.
RockRose Risk, a three-year-old wildfire risk brokerage based in Napa, raised a $12.5 million Series A to expand from arranging insurance tied to mitigation work into owning that work itself. The company aims to package property hardening, such as tree trimming and roofing, alongside insurance placement for homeowners associations and hotel owners in high-fire areas, according to Insurance Business.
The funding round was co-led by Crosslink Capital and Congruent Ventures, with participation from real estate-focused asset manager Nuveen. RockRose also said the raise will go toward acquisitions and contractor purchases rather than adding a larger sales team.
Up to now, RockRose has operated as a specialty broker, sending mitigation documentation to a panel of carrier partners to negotiate pricing that reflects fuel reduction and structural hardening. The company reports average premium reductions of roughly 21% for its commercial clients, spanning close to $7 billion of insured property value across California, Colorado, and Nevada, placed with 27 carriers.
Founder and CEO Andrew Engler said wildfire risk does not follow simple financial-model or zip-code boundaries, arguing RockRose is trying to make insurance underwriting match the “new game” created by climate-related change. The company is also described as launching its first homeowners insurance product and an autonomous property-inspection rover called Rosebud, weeks before the Series A announcement.