Monsanto Acquires Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For $930M | Hacker News Reader

Monsanto Acquires Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For $930M

techcrunch.com

84 pointsplayhard29 comments

I see that weather forecasting companies are now referred to as weather big data companies, even though most people know that forecasting means crunching large data sets.

"Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick." - Bruce Lee

It's a little cool kung fu master cryptic, but what he means is that before you start boxing a punch is something you think you understand. It's hitting someone with your fist. Simple concept. Then, if you practice boxing you quickly build up an increasingly complex vocabulary: light-footed jab, leaping lead hook, low cross. You learn that a counter to a looping right hook is quick stiff jab and that it's very hard to get power into a straight punch if you are moving backwards. Then (when you get to Bruce Lee level) you leave those definitions behind. A punch is a punch. Even though there are infinite variations, you don't need all those words. The complexity is implied and understandable.

This is similar to a lot of other things. At first, designing web sites was just designing web sites. No one knew what they were doing really. Then when people had enough experience, learned new ways of doing things & technology advanced they realized "hey, these websites are really software not documents and they're mostly about users creating content and interacting with each other!" So we got Web 2.0 . I think we're back to web design is just web design. "Creating software that lets users interact with each other" is implied.

Same with number crunching. Number crunching-> big data -> number crunching.

It's kind of like adding .com in 1998. Just that suffix turns a boring "trades at 10 times trailing earnings" retailer into a "trades at 50 times next years sales" e-commerce firm. :-)

If the trend continues, we can expect Big Data aircraft designers and Big Data astrophysics software.

I see that you don't know what the Climate Corporation does, even though most people know you can visit the website and read.

Climate Corp doesn't forecast the weather.

Congrats, I hope all the awesome Cascalog hackers at Climate Corporation made out well in the acquisition. I was impressed by these guys out at Clojure/West a couple of years ago.

Yeah, they're very kind to host many of the Clojure meetups here in SF, and seem to be very sharp. They were working with some impressive amounts of data, and made it look easy.

That said, Monsanto....

yea, that name is enough to taint anything associated with it, to me at least.

....is what?

Wikipedia knows all (I can't speak to bias)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto#Legal_actions_and_con...

The equivalent of an agriculture patent troll.

Or an evil wizard.

It's a smart move in several ways. For one, Monsanto has to grow all the seed it is going to sell, so knowing which areas will most likely have the weather patterns conducive to that particular hybrid will increase their yield. Secondly, knowing what to expect in weather trends means they can decide what to focus on for crop traits, both in research and marketing. The recent drought caused Pioneer's first-to-market drought-tolerant seed to sell out, and I'm sure Monsanto is looking to find the next hit seller trait.

I think it is worth mentioning that Monsanto is a general technology company, which includes the seed technology you mention, but they are also involved in research and advancement elsewhere, like in precision farming. Weather forecasting technology ties into a lot of areas of their business.

I don't think this has a lot to do with good PR. It's a smart acquisition. Weather plays a big role in agriculture in Asian countries.

Why in Asia more than in other parts of the world? Mitigation of weather-related risks and oportunities should apply to any farmer with enough sophistication.

Maybe the comment was more about the agricultural economy. Most farmers have been and continue to be small-scale farmers (a few acres?), and since there are a lot more people in Asia, I'd expect a lot more farmers. I'm guessing that climate changes would hit 1000 people each with 2-acre farms in Asia differently than it would the pocketbook of 1 person with a 2000 acre farm in America that grows crops that get partially subsidized by the US govt. The role the govt plays (or doesn't, for example, b/c of excessive corruption), is also a factor.

We don't need no climate change to ruin a crop with hail storm, too little rain fall or other circumstances.

How was a startup able to offer an insurance product with only a few tens of millions in VC? Were they partnering with someone? I would love to read more about their business model.

Most insurance companies have their insurance policies underwritten by a reinsurer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance

You're right. I looked a little more on their site and found:

The policies are reinsured by Swiss RE Corporate Solutions Ltd which also has an A.M. Best rating of "A+" (Superior).

It looks like Swiss Re has a pretty significant global crop insurance business.

http://www.swissre.com/reinsurance/insurers/agriculture/

edit: I'm still a little confused though. What is the point of developing their own sophisticated risk model when the price of the policy will ultimately depend on Swiss Re's risk model?

Former Climate employee here.

Swiss Re reinsures Climate Corp, not any individual policy. So Climate Corp sets the price for each policy and pays out each claim. Swiss Re pays out to Climate Corp if in aggregate all the claims are greater than the price charged.

Does that make sense?

It does. Thanks!

The conspiracy crowd is going to go nuts with this.

Yes, I can't wait for the next nutcase to talk about Genetically Modified Bio-Weather Weapons :)

we have backdoors/trojans in chips. While not in seeds? :)

Congrats to David and the team! (I was an early investor, back when it was called Weatherbill)

When I visit that page all the videos start auto-playing at the same time.

It's a good time to be in the weather data and forecasting business. So much is possible now that was unthinkable just 5 years ago.

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