A month after launching its first funding round and debut insurance product, Stand has seen a significant surge in interest due to the recent LA wildfires. The company’s CEO, Dan Preston, said that inbound demand for the insurance service increased by 5-10 times overnight as the fires began.
Preston, who co-founded Stand last year, aims to offer reasonably priced protection to homeowners in wildfire zones using technology and a reimagining of home insurance. The company uses artificial intelligence and “physics-driven insights” tailored to each property to make specific mitigation recommendations that can make a property insurable.
Stand’s focus is on homes worth $2 million to $10 million, which Preston said covers properties facing a lot of “distress.” Despite having only insured a few properties so far, the company is in talks with hundreds of potential customers. The number of interested parties is increasing dramatically as property owners start to understand the consequences of the LA fires.
The recent wildfires have also highlighted the need for wildfire mitigation strategies and technologies. Convective Capital’s CEO, Bill Clerico, said that forest and fuel management, rapid detection using cameras and satellites, “hardening” of homes and communities, and reducing fires caused by utilities are key to dealing with wildfires.
Stand is one of the few companies attempting to address this issue, as legacy insurers are rapidly abandoning California due to the increasing fire risk. The company’s mission goes beyond protecting individual homes one at a time; it aims to contribute to making neighborhoods more resilient through behavioral and structural changes.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/19/la-wildfires-put-stand-in-spotlight-as-homeowners-seek-insurance.html