Portfolio Company Spotlight: Earth Knowledge
SEATTLE, WA – We’re pleased to share the interview below with Julia Armstrong D’Agnese, CEO of Earth Knowledge, recently added to the portfolio of Mastersfund companies. Julia was recently named B2B Tech Entrepreneur of the Year by Women in Cloud, a testament to her leadership acumen.
Winning the B2B Tech Entrepreneur of the Year award is a significant accomplishment. What does this mean to you and your team?
Julia Armstrong D’Agnese: Thank you so much. My team and I feel incredibly honored to win this award – and we’re deeply grateful to Mastersfund for nominating us. It takes vision, passion, commitment, support, and teamwork to successfully launch and scale a technology company. So, receiving this recognition is an affirmation, as well as an encouragement to continue our work. It validates Earth Knowledge’s market at a time when Earth information is recognized as being needed now, more than ever.
Looking back at your entrepreneurial path, what pivotal moments or achievements were instrumental in your success?
Julia: There have been several milestones related to our technology, customers, partnerships, and global thought leadership. We reincorporated in 2020 and partnered with Microsoft, transferring all our technology onto the Azure Marketplace. We built a digital twin of the planet and later released a 2.0 version that included 50 nature and climate risk indicators. Those were major technological milestones for us.
“Our platform integrates models of all Earth systems into our Earth Knowledge Twin, from the subsurface to the atmosphere.”
This Twin provides information based on historical data dating back to 1900 and forecasted data through 2100. We’re delivering this unprecedented knowledge to Fortune 500 companies, the state of California, which is the 5th largest economy in the world, and now, through NASDAQ Data Link, to 800,000 investors as well.
Another set of milestones involves our thought leadership. We are partnering with Microsoft and EY to create their early market report on nature risk, “Waking Up to Nature: The Biodiversity Imperative for Financial Services.” We’ve published reports on ESG and Geospatial ESG with the World Bank and World Wildlife Fund, and we continue to speak on the subject internationally. It has been incredibly exciting to be one of the founding members of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD). We were featured in “The ESG Mindset,” now the #1 news release in business sustainability. On a personal level, being selected as the top woman entrepreneur of the year and being included in the top 100 women founders by Women in Cloud last year were huge milestones.
As you built Earth Knowledge, what were your “aha moments”?
Julia: There were several. Frank and I originally founded Earth Knowledge in 2003, long before the market was ready for what we were offering. In those earlier years, companies thought that Earth Knowledge was a nonprofit organization. They’d refer us to their Corporate Social Responsibility arm. But we always knew that one day, corporate leaders would realize the practical and critical value of this information about the planet. As regulations developed and financial institutions like BlackRock began acknowledging that climate risk is financial risk, we’ve seen the market validation that we believed would occur for so many years.
We had many “aha” moments when we saw the market and regulations catching up with our vision. Barry Glick, who co-founded MapQuest and has led multiple companies to billion-dollar valuations, became our advisor. That was a big moment for us. Under his and others’ mentorship, we realized the enormous potential of Earth Knowledge at scale. We decided to reincorporate in 2020 to fully harness this growth potential and launch the company on a much larger scale.
You were way ahead of the market in 2003. What inspired you to start the company?
Julia: Yes, we were! We launched Earth Knowledge in 2003, over 20 years ago. My background is in business and international business psychology. I initially thought I would go to graduate school in a traditional way. I was accepted at Yale and Princeton, but I recognized that entrepreneurship was in my blood. Entrepreneurship is in my lineage. On my father’s side, it goes back to the first glass factory in the American colonies. Entrepreneurship is on my mother’s side as well. I’ve always been driven by the idea of making the world a better place through business.
In my 20’s, I was part of a management team that took a company from operating out of trailers to an IPO in just four years. That experience was tremendous for me. I then started my own consulting business and later became a managing partner at a venture capital firm. My cofounder Frank had already been pioneering a big data platform and committed to the approach of integrating Earth systems in order to replicate how our planet works, to improve relevant government and business decisions. We wanted to create a company that could deliver the most authoritative science-based information about the planet, making it understandable and actionable.
“We partnered with Google when they launched Google Earth and built the first sustainability hub for organizations like the BBC, the Guardian, and WWF.”
We operated that for five and a half years, with 80% of the world’s countries accessing our information. This is what laid the foundation for what Earth Knowledge has become today.
In the B2B tech space, what unique approach or cutting-edge technologies set Earth Knowledge apart?
Julia: First, we have the most comprehensive approach to understanding the planet and how it’s evolving, thanks to our systems of systems approach. Instead of looking at just one aspect, such as water or climate, we integrate multiple Earth systems into our Integrated Planetary Intelligence platform to provide a much more complete picture. The interrelationships of these systems is crucial for understanding subtle to cascading risks, as well as opportunities at any location around the globe, making our approach a huge differentiator.
We have a stellar Science Council led by Dr. Frank D’Agnese, with a multidisciplinary approach to Earth systems. Our Director of Climate Science was President Obama’s climate science advisor and is a Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient. We have three team members who co-authored the most recent U.S. National Climate Assessment. Our Director for Natural Capital is a co-chair for the next IPBES report, the nature-focused counterpart to the IPCC. The caliber of our science team is phenomenal.
We’re very mission-driven, relationship-driven, and partnership-driven. Our partnerships with Microsoft and NASDAQ are unique in this space. We work closely with Microsoft on multiple levels, from co-building and co-selling to thought leadership. We’re part of their assisted growth program, and now we’ve launched Earth Knowledge data on NASDAQ’s Data Link.
Another unique aspect is our global presence and the relationships we’ve built. We’re not just a technology company; we’re people-centered. We use AI and plan to expand its use, but always with a focus on human interaction and decision-making. The circles that our team is a part of – IPCC, IPBES, elite scientific Boards – require years of commitment and devotion to sustainability, and that’s where we excel.
With the future in mind, where do you see your company in the next five years? What opportunities are you eager to pursue?
Julia: We’re very focused on being as profitable and sustainable in our growth as possible. We are becoming one of the strongest market leaders, especially as we help to define this new market with our systems approach. We’re excited about scaling this authoritative, science-based information globally at a whole new level.
“There’s a massive need for what we’ve built. Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and others recognize the importance of understanding environmental risk.”
We’re already working with the California State Climatologist and forecasting wildfire risks for CAL FIRE, helping them and others in California mitigate infrastructure and human risks. We want to get this technology out to the world while generating significant revenue, using that capital wisely, and maximizing our financial impact.
In the next five years, we see the need for our work crescendoing. Companies and financial institutions are just waking up to the reality that understanding and preserving the planet is a financial necessity. We are riding that wave and leading much of the thought leadership, as well as sales, in this space. We are already having a significant impact on sustainable decision-making.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs trying to make their mark in the B2B tech industry?
Julia: I would encourage people to find their passion – what’s truly in their heart and soul to do in this world – and hold tight to that. Surround yourself with people who support the business that can emerge from that passion. There needs to be a market ready for what you’re offering, and you have to scale as the market allows.
I’ve been a woman entrepreneur in three different categories that have historically been male-led: investment, technology, and science. Therefore, I think it’s crucial for women entrepreneurs, and all entrepreneurs, to surround themselves with people who truly get their vision and see the potential. I hope that I can be a role model and a supporter, inspiring other women who have dreams or are in the midst of scaling companies, and help them protect and build their vision.
Learn more at: https://earthknowledge.com
About Earth Knowledge: Earth Knowledge’s cloud-based platform models cascading and inter-related impacts of critical earth systems to provide the insights required to navigate the complexities of planetary change. From wildfires to water scarcity, businesses and governments face unprecedented challenges as a result of rapidly changing environmental conditions. Earth Knowledge provides the insight leaders need to mitigate risks, make better decisions, and adapt.
Mastersfund invested in Earth Knowledge based on the power of both the scientific team and the business leadership team. The company has made strong progress in sales, exciting acquisitions of channel partners, including NASDAQ which provides access to 850,000 investors who log on daily to manage their portfolios and make investment decisions.