(Editor’s note: This post about CLIMATIG is part of our Tech Tuesday series. Dispatches covers tech and startups because so many of our highly skilled internationals are entrepreneurs and investors.)
Companies offering solutions to assess and properly manage climate risks are gaining more and more attention on the global stage – and for good reason. One such company is the Croatian startup Altacon. The startup hails from Rijeka, Croatia’s principal seaport, and it has developed software called CLIMATIG.
Croatia’s Business Diary reports that this innovative Croatian-made tool allows its users to monitor climate change at highly specific locations through 12 “critical hazards,” thus helping them prepare for future climate risks through the year 2100. Alcaton CEO Duško Radulović revealed more about just how this innovative creation came to be.
Cooperation with talented Croatian scientists
Back in 2019, Radulović, who has an MBA and a doctorate in marketing, and Alcatron’s technical director Alen Šterpin put their heads together and asked whether it could be possible to display the specific risks of climate change for any given property in the future.
The result is CLIMATIG, which transforms climate risk data into actionable financial intelligence through high-resolution analytics that enable precise calculation of climate-related costs, from property devaluation to potential losses.
“We wanted to enable property owners to be able to see the dangers of climate change in the future for every house, school, hotel, factory, office, etc. That way, the owners could make a decision on how to adapt and prepare for the upcoming dangers, or perhaps sell the property at its optimal value,” Radulović said. He added that the idea was successfully translated into reality with a lot of effort from Croatian scientists.
Alcatron remains headquartered in Rijeka with an office in Zagreb, and over the past couple of years, it has been present on the global market of innovative Climate-tech solutions via the CLIMATIG.com platform.
Recognition from the United Nations
One of the key advantages of the aforementioned platform is its ease of use. All the user needs to do is input their property’s address, or its geo-coordinates, and in seconds they receive a detailed report on the climate risks that threaten that specific location. Multiple risk factors are assessed including drought, river floods, flash floods, sea floods, forest fires, wind storms, heat, hail and frost, tropical cyclones, landslides and even earthquakes. “CLIMATIG’s uniqueness lies in its high resolution,” Radulović said. “We look at each property within a 10-metre radius.”
The precision of their calculations has even grabbed the UN’s attention. Other advantages are the diversity of available climate reports, the application of satellite data and the calculation of potential costs caused by future climate damage to any given property.
Like most startups – particularly in Croatia where entrepreneurial waters are treacherous – Altacon dealt with an array of challenges. “Initially, we were constantly having to explain what exactly we were doing because people didn’t understand what we were measuring, but we didn’t lose faith,” Radulović added. “Although it sounds strange now, back at that time, the topic of climate change wasn’t really a hot topic in Croatia or even elsewhere in Europe, and only a few names on the market were actively engaged in it.”
In addition to that, financing, developing sophisticated algorithms and gaining user trust were also challenging. However, through cooperation with acclerators and industy institutions such as UNEP FI, Lloyd’s Lab, EIOPA, Impact Hub and participating in programmes such as Infobip Startup Tribe, Alcatron managed to overcome those obstacles and find its place under the sun on the fast- paced climate tech market.
Going global
Given the effects of climate change, CLIMATIG now has enormous market potential. Though developed for businesses, insurers and governmental agencies, it offers individuals the knowledge of exactly which climate hazards will affect their property, thus enabling everyone to prepare.
Climate-tech services have plenty of market potential, especially in the financial services sector. That includes banks and insurance companies as they have a growing need for accurate climate risk assessment models to make informed decisions about lending, investing and insurance.
“Sectors such as asset management, ESG reporting, agriculture and public administration also use Alcatron’s tool,” Radulović said, adding that this Croatian-made service is available for the entire territory of Europe, the United States and Canada.
By the end of 2025, they intend to expand to other markets and offer global climate risk coverage.
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Read more about innovation in Croatia here in Dispatches’ archives.
Lauren Simmonds
Lauren Simmonds is the editor of Total Croatia News, the largest English language portal in Croatia. She lives in Zagreb, Croatia, and is a translator, content writer, interpreter and the co-author of "Croatia - A Survival Kit for Foreigners," which was published in 2022.
