Would Your Building Survive An Extreme Weather Event?

GeoX applies patented artificial intelligence analysis to create 3D maps from aerial photographs of commercial and residential properties taken by satellite, aircraft and drone.

The Geox worldwide database covers 340 million properties, and its US database covers 160 million properties.

Clients on five continents are using GeoX’s services for insurance assessment, real-estate management, and city planning.

The US Federal Management Emergency Agency (FEMA) uses GeoX maps to evaluate damage after disasters.

The World Bank is using it to protect residents of Ghana in West Africa by identifying flood-prone housing. They can then take measures such as building dams and sending real-time alerts.

New York-based global analytics giant EXL is integrating GeoX data into underwriting services provided to the largest insurance companies in the United States, Europe, and Australia to help them assess the damage and detect attempts at fraud. From this, they will be able to determine if homeowners actually need a Water damage restoration company, for example, or if contractors need to come in to fix anything, which has the potential to be paid for if it is due to no fault of the occupant/s.

GeoX AI-assisted mapping provides granular details about properties for insurance, management, and planning purposes. These data can be brought into proper use by property managers and advisors, similar to Michael Teys, for instance, to make an action plan to keep the damage at a significant low.

The government company Geoscape hired GeoX to map and analyze 18 million single-family homes for a variety of planning purposes, such as infrastructure supporting energy distribution and cellular networks.

Insurance companies use GeoX’s maps to structure differential premiums reflecting each property’s exact degree of risk or suggest improvements to mitigate the risk and lower the premium.”We provide data and risk analysis on each property to help prevent disasters, and evidence to understand the reason for damage afterward,” said Izik Lavy, co-founder, and chief executive officer of GeoX.

Automatic technology saves companies the expense of sending assessors to each home, a cost that is passed on to customers.

Because prevention is always preferable to dealing with damage, the information from GeoX points to specific actions to safeguard properties.

If you live in an area vulnerable to wildfires, for example, you can cut away the brush and buy inexpensive sprays to protect your trees from catching fire. Similarly, people who live in marshy areas have to build proper foundations for their houses or run the risk of mold and water-logging. This can cause permanent damage to the home, and something like GeoX would be required to assess the damage and see if a professional company similar to this Water Damage Restoration Minneapolis service would be able to repair it. Artificial Intelligence such as this, therefore, could be able to predict the future of disaster survivability in the near future.

To give you another example, if your roof is in poor shape, the insurance company may refuse to insure you until you fix it by hiring experts from a reputed roofing company in Sterling Heights or wherever you reside. Making your property safer may be difficult for you, but it is in your best interest. Of course, by safeguarding your possessions, you safeguard your life also.

The GeoX system also allows insurers and real-estate managers to monitor buildings for signs of deterioration. It can even be used by real-estate developers to make wiser portfolio choices.

Risks are increasing

Lavy, a veteran of an IDF intelligence unit, founded GeoX in 2018 with Eli Lavie (CTO) and Guy Attar (VP of business development).

They had noted the increased demand for risk assessments due to increasing extreme weather events including devastating hurricanes in America, unusual floods in Europe and China, and wildfires across the globe.

These disasters cost insurance companies tens of billions of dollars in claims.

“I saw that insurance carriers, in particular, suffered from lack of information, and I wanted to solve this pain point,” said Lavy.

“This also helps all of us, the end customers, because we will receive better service and be able to protect our property and understand our risks wherever we are.”

“Everyone has the same lack of information no matter where you are based.”

Using aerial imagery obtained by purchase or partnership, GeoX can identify every feature of a property including the number of stories, pitch of the roof, square footage and even the Jacuzzi in the backyard.

“We extract all the information from aerial imagery by leveraging AI and machine learning,” said Lavy. “This answers the need for stable information that will be similar in every place.”

GeoX employs 25 people, 15 of them at a development center in Ramat Gan, and the others on the two US coasts. Investors include the Shor-Tech Stock Exchange Partnership and the ICM Fund.

Produced in association with ISRAEL21c.