This is a New Risk Founders Should Address Before Fundraising

As American biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson once said, “In nature nothing exists alone.” True to this, we are at an inflection point where the natural world meets AI, and investors are starting to factor nature-related risks into real funding decisions — who gets capital, on what terms and at what cost.

For years, nature risk stayed outside most funding conversations because it was hard to see clearly and harder to translate into underwriting. That has changed. Satellite imagery, on-the-ground monitoring and scientific research can now be processed through geospatial risk intelligence. Exposure can also now be traced to a single asset in a specific location.

I work with investors who are already invested in companies or considering providing credit, and nature-risk signals now feed into those processes. The questions are simple. Where are the assets? What do they depend on? What happens to output and cash flow if access to a critical resource is impeded for a week?

This information gives founders a choice. You can let diligence define the risk for you, or you can define it first, with a plan.

Nature risk is already showing up in investor decisions

Investor expectations around environmental transparency have shifted because nature risk is now showing up in financial outcomes. When disruption looks more likely, insurance premiums rise. When operating continuity looks less certain, the cost of credit moves. When supply chains break more often, cash flow becomes harder to trust.

Investor capacity has accelerated, partly because multidimensional risk can now be detected earlier. These questions are becoming standard in investment processes and credit decisions.

When location and resources become a financial liability

In one diligence review I have been close to, shareholders of a pharmaceutical company noted that a key operational location was exposed to high flood risk because mangroves adjacent to the operation had been depleted. Should flooding occur, output could halt for a number of days. Those days lead to manufacturing disruptions and higher costs, which then affect product availability and revenue.

A similar logic appears in data centre conversations. Shareholders are noting locations adjacent to areas of high water stress and scarcity; at the same time, water is required for cooling. What begins as a resource issue becomes operational risk, and then a financing variable. This is because water stress can increase insurance premiums and can push up interest rates on credit issuance as lenders consider uncertainty and risk level.

The new tools investors are using to see what founders miss

Generative geospatial AI and predictive models can now support quick checks that surface exposure at both broad and granular levels. In the last six months, models made available by NASA, among many others, have signalled how quickly this capability is progressing, and this type of analysis is already appearing in some private equity investment committee papers.

Alongside geospatial scans, AI-powered materiality assessment has matured. These tools collate and classify academic papers to identify nature-related risks, impacts, and dependencies that tend to be material for a sector, including what can hide in supply chains. This work used to focus on impact. Increasingly, it is used to understand what the business depends on from the services nature provides.

The risks founders need to surface before they raise

Best practice starts from the top. Before a raise, run an initial scan across the business and supply chain that covers dependencies, impacts, and operational location risks, then use a quick geospatial assessment to locate where exposure sits.

Then, start with resource dependency. If operations rely on clean and plentiful water for production or cooling, assess exposure to drought, scarcity, or competing demand, and what that would do to throughput and costs.

Carry on by addressing site-specific exposure and obligations. See where flooding could halt output. Inspect whether you are near protected biodiversity, and what restoration requirements could mean for cost and timelines. If the business produces harmful pollutants, model the cost of managing them under tighter expectations.

Finally, follow the risk into the supply chain. Hidden dependency often sits in inputs that are hard to substitute, from critical minerals to commodities such as coffee, soy, cacao, and timber. Acute events and chronic stress can both interrupt supply, which can raise costs and break commitments.

From an investor’s perspective, red flags are financial signals without an explanation. High insurance premiums, higher costs of credit, and supply chain disruption that have not been considered can indicate high costs that are not included in the plan.

Why managing nature risk can strengthen access to capital

There is upside to managing risk early. If you are seen to be managing these risks and disclosing key metrics to some extent, it can support a stronger view of medium- to long-term resilience. In credit conversations, that can translate into better terms, including lower interest rates when uncertainty is reduced.

Before your next fundraising, run the scan, identify nature-related risks that could realistically disrupt operations or raise costs, and put a clear mitigation plan in place. Remember, investors aren’t afraid of risk. They’re fearful of the risks you didn’t see.

As American biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson once said, “In nature nothing exists alone.” True to this, we are at an inflection point where the natural world meets AI, and investors are starting to factor nature-related risks into real funding decisions — who gets capital, on what terms and at what cost.

For years, nature risk stayed outside most funding conversations because it was hard to see clearly and harder to translate into underwriting. That has changed. Satellite imagery, on-the-ground monitoring and scientific research can now be processed through geospatial risk intelligence. Exposure can also now be traced to a single asset in a specific location.