The growing frequency of extreme weather events is pushing climate risk beyond environmental agendas and into core financial decisions. Droughts, floods, fires and heat waves can affect production, asset values, income and repayment capacity for individuals and companies. Against this backdrop, Brazilian startup ESGreen has launched the IRC-ESGreen climate risk index during Febraban Tech 2026 in São Paulo.
A New Climate Intelligence Infrastructure
The new index combines climate, ESG and operational data to evaluate and monitor risks for individuals and legal entities. It relies on climate information updated daily and predictive models that can project risk scenarios for periods of 7, 15, 30 and 60 days. According to CEO Mauricio Rodrigues, traditional models based on historical data are no longer sufficient for managing today's intensifying climate risks.
Linking Climate Data to Financial Risk
IRC-ESGreen assigns 60 percent of its composition to climate risks, 30 percent to ESG risks and 10 percent to operational risks. The model brings these layers together to understand not only whether an event occurs but also its likely economic impact on a specific territory. The platform consumes global climate conditions, public data and satellite imagery every four hours, producing granular territorial readings of approximately three to five kilometers.
Applications in Agribusiness
In agribusiness, the model evaluates a property's location, the cultivated crop and expected weather conditions to estimate how a weather event may affect operations. A drought or excessive rainfall can compromise a harvest and undermine a producer's ability to repay financing. Rodrigues explains that when banks see this risk earlier, they can discuss financial solutions, insurance and sustainable finance structures instead of simply restricting credit.
Climate Pressures in Brazil
The launch arrives as Brazil faces a Super El Niño, according to the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters, known as Cemaden. This classification points to more heat waves and reinforces concerns about extreme conditions following the previous El Niño, which brought severe floods in Rio Grande do Sul and droughts in the Amazon and Northeast. As extreme events become more frequent, the company expects growing demand for data intelligence solutions capable of mitigating financial exposure.
Regional Ambitions and Local Technology
The company is building technology for markets often overlooked by risk models developed for the United States and Europe. Its initial focus includes Latin America, starting with Mexico, and African countries, with attention to local biomes and productive characteristics. Founded in 2022, ESGreen originally offered ESG assessment and monitoring tools but began developing its own climate model about a year ago with support from the NVIDIA Inception ecosystem and a partnership with Lenovo.
Market Validation and Customer Base
A pilot covering more than 1,000 productive areas and properties in Brazil's South region found that 94.3 percent of the analyzed portfolio had some exposure to extreme climate events in the previous two years. ESGreen currently serves around 60 large companies and financial institutions. Some of these clients already use the startup's solutions in processes related to credit approval.
Growth Outlook and Next Steps
The company remains bootstrapped and has grown between 90 and 100 percent annually over the last three years. Its management is evaluating alternatives for fundraising or financing to support the next phase of expansion. With the new product, ESGreen expects to grow at least tenfold in 2027 as demand for climate intelligence increases.
ESGreen describes the new index as an additional layer of decision infrastructure, complementing traditional credit, liquidity and market risk measures. By translating climate events into forward-looking financial signals, the company wants to help lenders act before disruptions turn into defaults. The initiative highlights how Brazilian technology companies are increasingly building tools for climate-related risks across Latin America and Africa.
Source: Startups.com.br