Floodbase

Floodbase was founded by Bessie Schwarz and Dr. Beth Tellman while studying as Masters students at Yale University. Both had experience working with climate vulnerable communities and saw firsthand how a lack of data directly contributed to inequity and financial ruin in the face of climate change. At Yale, they built the first iteration of Floodbase as a side project to fix disaster aid lists in El Salvador and New York state. Google flew them to Mountain View for a presentation on V1 of the tech and quickly funded them to build out the full research.

Since its founding, Floodbase has pioneered the field of satellite flood tracking, with our science appearing on the cover of Nature in 2021. Our Flood Intelligence Platform has enabled the United Nations and several national governments to improve flood disaster response. We are now powering a new type of flood insurance to help flood-vulnerable communities around the world access financial support and adapt in the face of increasing climate disasters.