Pioneering Climate Resilience: A Profile of RiskThinking.ai

RiskThinking.ai is a pioneering climate risk data and analytics company that is redefining how global organizations assess and prepare for climate-related financial risks. Headquartered in Toronto, with an office in London, the company was founded in 2019 by Ron Dembo, a renowned figure in risk management and financial engineering. Its core mission is to equip banks, insurers, asset managers, and corporations with the advanced tools needed to understand the long-term implications of climate change. The company's enterprise solutions not only assist clients in managing risk but also empower them to transform that risk into a strategic advantage, identifying opportunities to create new products and support sustainable business practices. Today, RiskThinking.ai is a trusted partner to some of the world's most prominent financial institutions, including Bloomberg LLP and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

A Conversation with Ron Dembo, Founder & CEO

What was the motivation behind starting RiskThinking.ai?

Our motivation stemmed from closely observing the market and recognizing a critical gap. It was evident that existing analyses from consulting firms and available software and data suppliers were inadequate to address the profound uncertainty of our future climate. We identified an urgent need for a more robust, data-driven approach to climate risk assessment—one that could support better decision-making in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Your technology is centered on the ClimateEarthDigitalTwin™. How does this platform advance climate risk analysis?

Our core product is a geospatially aligned digital twin that accurately models future climate uncertainty. What genuinely distinguishes the ClimateEarthDigitalTwin™ is that it is the most comprehensive stochastic—or probabilistic—model of future climate conditions available today.

Traditional deterministic models that rely on one or two future scenarios often overlook tail risk—those extreme but potentially catastrophic events. Our patented stochastic methodology enhances accuracy by analysing over 2,000 probabilistic pathways. This comprehensive range allows us to capture the full spectrum of possible future outcomes, providing clients with a deeper understanding of the risks they truly face and enabling more informed decision-making.

A significant breakthrough is its accessibility. The digital twin enables rapid deployment with zero onboarding costs for clients on Google Cloud or AWS, allowing organizations to become fully operational within hours. This is all accomplished within the robust privacy and security frameworks of these leading cloud platforms.

How do your integrated data layers provide such comprehensive insights?

All our data layers are geospatially aligned, whether they relate to corporate physical assets or natural resources such as agriculture and water. This alignment is crucial for delivering highly accurate, location-specific climate risk insights. By providing a single location, clients can access detailed projections of potential impacts from a wide range of climate hazards at any point in the future, without compromising their privacy.

We cover 54 distinct hazard indices, providing the most extensive and detailed risk coverage available worldwide. This enables a genuinely comprehensive assessment of climate exposure at any location across the globe.

Climate risk is a complex challenge for diverse sectors. How do you tailor solutions for banks, investors, and corporations?

Our digital twin is designed with flexibility and transparency to meet the unique requirements of each sector. For example, banks can easily customize or override any assumption within the model to better align with their specific risk frameworks. To support this adaptability, we provide comprehensive and detailed documentation of our methodologies, ensuring that clients fully understand the basis of our analyses.

We also developed the VELO platform, which simplifies climate risk research and portfolio analysis through an intuitive interface. It transforms trillions of data points into accessible, near-real-time insights, enabling clients to efficiently analyse complex climate risks and make informed decisions with greater speed and confidence. Crucially, these analyses help guide companies on their adaptation strategies, turning risks into opportunities.

How have partnerships with organizations like Bloomberg and Canadian financial regulators enhanced your credibility?

These partnerships are crucial and significantly enhance the credibility and impact of our solutions. Bloomberg’s rigorous data governance standards provide us with valuable insights that guide the development of our own high-quality data products. Similarly, Canadian Financial Regulators engaged with us specifically due to the accuracy of our data, the transparency of our documentation, and the robustness of our software. These collaborations strengthen our commitment to delivering excellence and trustworthiness in the climate risk sector.

Ron Dembo, Founder and CEO

“We cover 54 distinct hazard indices, providing the most extensive and detailed risk coverage available worldwide. This enables a genuinely comprehensive assessment of climate exposure at any location across the globe.”

“Our patented stochastic methodology enhances accuracy by analysing over 2,000 probabilistic pathways. This comprehensive range allows us to capture the full spectrum of possible future outcomes, providing clients with a deeper understanding of the risks they truly face and enabling more informed decision-making.”