Catastrophe modeling firm RMS has acquired HWind Scientific LLC, a startup focused on producing real-time hurricane impact data.
Neither side disclosed financial details. But RMS said the acquisition deepens an ongoing relationship between the two companies. RMS licensed HWind’s signature service (known as H*Wind ) for use in its hurricane models and event response services as soon as it became commercially available in 2014, Mohsen Rahnama, RMS head of model development, said in prepared remarks.
Rahnama said that the acquisition will allow RMS to advance clients’ hurricane risk management and also develop future models and data in the hurricane risk space.
RMS said it will start offering HWind Scientific products, including H*Wind, as part of its hurricane model suite. HWind founder Mark Powell, who invented the company’s core technology, will become RMS vice president, model development.
HWind Scientific launched in April 2014 after the hurricane research division of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories assignment of all its rights, title and interest in the H*Wind methodology to Powell as inventor. RMS said it supports the uninterrupted use of the technology by academics who use the data it generates “extensively for hurricane research purposes.”
Source: RMS