ClimateAi shuts down after raising $38 million in funding

ClimateAi, a San Francisco-based startup focused on developing artificial intelligence tools to anticipate climate risks, has ceased operations after eight years in business. The company had raised $38 million from investors and worked with food and agriculture companies to help them adapt to the effects of climate change.

The announcement was made by the company and its co-founder and CEO, Himanshu Gupta, who said the decision came amid a challenging environment shaped by geopolitical and climate-related factors.

“Eight years ago, we set out to make the world a better and more resilient place. Today, we’ve decided to shut down ClimateAi and return the capital to our investors”, Gupta said.

The executive added that unspecified “geopolitical and climate headwinds” had made it difficult for the company to continue its mission. He also said that, although the shutdown was not the outcome the company wanted, ClimateAi had helped establish climate adaptation as a relevant business category.

“While this is not the outcome we wanted, I find myself walking away with more pride than disappointment. When we started, climate adaptation wasn’t a category. Today, it’s a real market with real companies in it”, Gupta said.

ClimateAi's shutdown comes amid a challenging environment for startups focused on climate and agricultural intelligence. Two years earlier, agricultural intelligence platform Gro Intelligence also announced that it was ending operations.

ClimateAi had developed ClimateLens, a platform that combined artificial intelligence and proprietary models with data from multiple sources, including satellites, radar stations, weather stations and ocean buoys.

The goal was to turn that information into actionable forecasts and insights for business decision-making. Its tools were used for demand planning, procurement, agricultural production and harvest-window planning.

During its early years, the company focused primarily on large seed and agricultural chemical companies. It later expanded its customer base to consumer packaged goods companies, including Dole, Suntory, Oatly and McCain.

In January, ClimateAi Chief Operating Officer Will Kletter discussed a new tool combining data visualization, forecasting and agentic artificial intelligence to help customers plan harvest windows.

Kletter also described a broader shift within the food industry, with procurement and sustainability teams increasingly working together and treating climate as a key factor in operational and strategic planning.

“As we’ve rolled out this news to customers, we’ve received countless messages describing how we helped elevate climate science to the board room and got executive teams to think about climate resilience as a meaningful business variable”, Kletter said.

The company did not provide details about the specific circumstances that led to the decision. It also did not disclose whether it had explored alternatives such as a sale, acquisition or combination with another company in the sector.

ClimateAi also did not specify how long the wind-down process would take or what would happen to the technologies and assets developed during its eight years of operations.

The startup had received backing from several investors, including Footprint Coalition, an organization associated with actor Robert Downey Jr. In total, ClimateAi had raised approximately $38 million.

The shutdown marks another case of a climate technology company leaving the market despite growing corporate interest in using artificial intelligence to anticipate weather events and reduce risks associated with climate change.

According to AgFunderNews, ClimateAi decided to wind down its operations and return capital to its investors. The publication reported that the story remains developing.