Private Equity Investors Increase Stake in Storm Exchange

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Storm Exchange, Inc., a company that helps businesses improve their performance in the face of increasingly volatile weather, today announced that a group of leading private equity firms, including its original backers – RRE Ventures and Venrock Associates – has invested an additional $7.2 million in expansion capital in the company.

“As the climate becomes both more volatile and less predictable, business managers are finding they need to take a more proactive stance in managing their weather risk.”

Launched in April of 2007, Storm Exchange was founded to expand the market for weather risk management solutions to the growing list of companies and industries that are being adversely impacted by day-to-day weather. The company has quickly established a leadership position in this fast-growing market through the development of over 500 proprietary benchmark weather indices, new weather risk analytics and tools, and innovative financial-based hedging solutions.

“The weather has become one of the more important business operating issues of the twenty-first century,” said David Riker, President and CEO of Storm Exchange. “As the climate becomes both more volatile and less predictable, business managers are finding they need to take a more proactive stance in managing their weather risk.”

Storm Exchange helps businesses across a diverse set of industries – each of whom has unique requirements for quantifying and managing the weather’s impact on their operations and financials. By tapping the breadth and depth of the capital markets, Storm Exchange is able to deliver financial weather protection that is structured similarly to the strategies used today by institutional investors to reduce financial exposures to other forms of volatility, such as interest rate fluctuations or rapidly changing currency rates.

As Mr. Riker notes: “We’re bringing financial innovation to bear through the capital markets in order to offer companies effective hedging solutions. Our clients are seeking to reduce financial uncertainty and offset the negative impact that volatile weather has on customer demand, earnings, costs and cash flows.”

Currently most active in the agriculture, energy, retail and manufacturing markets, Storm Exchange is building the market for weather risk management data and transactions across a range of weather-sensitive industries that also include aviation, travel, construction and outdoor entertainment.

About Storm Exchange, Inc.

Storm Exchange, Inc. operates an online financial market to help businesses (and in some cases their end consumers) better plan for and manage their weather-related risks.

Nearly one-third of the U.S. economy is sensitive to the weather. And while businesses routinely hedge risks such as currency and interest rate fluctuations, when it comes to the variability of the weather, most are operating blind. That's because until now most companies have not had the knowledge or tools to develop a clear understanding of the true measure and financial cost of their weather losses. Storm Exchange was founded to fill this large, but unmet, corporate need.

The company's innovative online platform gives corporations, governments and other clients the specialized industry knowledge, data-driven indices, analytical tools and capital market access they need to execute a contract to hedge their weather-related risks. The result is more control over uncertain forecasts, improved operating results and stronger, more predictable financial performance.

Find out more about Storm Exchange at www.stormexchange.com.