The masters of the weather
Weather forecasting without limits
When it began to rain torrentially at the beginning of August 2002 over wide parts of Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Salzburg, barely anyone would have expected the catastrophe that unfolded over the following weeks. The "flood of the century" left a trail of destruction throughout the country: flooded towns, dramatic rescues and damages of several billion euro.
This weather catastrophe was the starting point for chemist Michael Fassnauer and meteorologist Manfred Spatzierer for the founding of UBIMET – A private weather service which aims to provide high-precision weather predictions.
From 2 to 250
"We have always believed in the success of our business idea", says Michael Fassnauer today. "Even when the road was rocky, we still managed right from the beginning to win UNIQA as a first customer“. The insurance company offers its customers early warning for storms so that they can take steps to protect their property appropriately, e.g. move the car into the garage before it starts to hail. Until now, more than 65 million of these warnings have been sent out.
Having started out as a team of two, Ubimet has now grown into a company with 250 employees, with subsidiaries in Karlsruhe, Melbourne, Munich, New York and Zürich. Despite this expansion, the company headquarters remains in Vienna.
Precise and cross-border
In 2004, the two innovative minds also founded the Unwetterzentrale Österreich (Austrian Storm Centre - UWZ), which provided storm warnings for the first time according to postcode. Today, these are delivered with pinpoint accuracy. With the Weather Cockpit, UBIMET subsequently developed a professional weather application, which aids weather-dependent companies in particular in boosting safety and efficiency. These include Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Vienna airports as well as the rail companies ÖBB and Deutsche Bahn. In summer 2015, UBIMET launched its free premium weather app, MORECAST.
Weather data for Formula 1
Red Bull has been a shareholder and a strategic partner of UBIMET since 2012. Since 2014, the global company has been supplying weather data for Formula 1 racing.
"Precise predictions of extreme weather situations such as heavy thunderstorms, hail and snow represent the greatest challenges for the future", says Manfred Spatzierer. In order to continue providing the best data in the future, Ubimet invests around 25% of its revenue in research and development.
Services provided by the Vienna Business Agency:
- Funded through the program Services
- Funded through the program From Science to Products
UBIMET on the Technology Platform
Company contact:
UBIMET GmbH
ARES Tower, Donau-City-Straße 11
1220 Wien
www.ubimet.com/de_AT
(c) UBIMET
As of January 2017