{
  "id": 14694687,
  "title": "Exclusive: Stand raises $70 million at $1 billion valuation to price wildfire risk by treating homes like airplanes in flight",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/exclusive-stand-raises-70-million-at-1-billion-valuation-to-price",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/10/15/stand-insurance-wildfire-unicorn-raises-70-million-1-billion-valuation/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Stand, a San Francisco-based home insurer, has raised $70 million in a Series C funding round at a $1 billion valuation to redefine how it calculates wildfire risk. Rather than relying on zip-code based models, Stand uses digital twin technology to simulate each individual home and demonstrate to owners which changes could reduce their insurance premium. Founded by Matt DiStefano, Stand's 29-year-old chief science officer, the company currently insures over $10 billion in property, up from $1 billion a year ago. The company has seen growth of about 15% per month in its two markets: California for wildfire and Florida for hurricanes. Stand's digital twin technology simulates the effects of a wildfire or tropical cyclone on a specific home, taking into account factors such as materials, arrangement of trees, wind direction and weather conditions. Using this model, Stand claims to accurately predict whether a home will burn or survive with an 85% success rate, compared to 50-55% for competing models. DiStefano, who has a background in aerospace engineering, says Stand is bringing a new level of detailed analysis to the insurance industry, similar to the work done on designing airplanes.",
  "summary": "Only a few years old, Stand says its digital twins predicted wildfire outcomes about 85% of the time in a backtest, versus 50%–55% for conventional models.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}