Scout InsurTech Interview with Tenax ai

Tenax ai is an insurance company. They seek to reduce the risk of physical and financial losses for both insurers and property owners in the face of extreme weather events, such as wildfire, flood and storms. Chris Luiz sat with CEO and Co-Founder, Elyse Myrans, to learn more about how Tenax ai is impacting the industry.

Who are your clients?

At Tenax ai, we primarily work with insurers in the P&C space that underwrite residential properties. We’ve found that our ideal partners tend to be underwriting teams, innovation teams or increasingly, resilience-focused groups within carriers, especially those tackling climate-related risks. We're also getting organic interest from property inspectors and assessors who are curious about using our technology in their own workflows. While we don’t target homeowners directly, they benefit from our work through these professional channels.

What does your product do?

We've built AI-powered computer vision software that allows insurers to assess and mitigate property-level risk, starting with wildfire hazards and expanding toward a broader set of climate-related threats. Our software helps insurers evaluate single-family homes with precision and provides actionable recommendations to improve resilience. At its core, Tenax ai is about shifting the model from payout to prevention, protecting homes and maintaining insurability in a world of increasing extreme weather events.

How much capital have you raised?

We’re still early in our journey. We incorporated in January 2024 after getting started in the fall of 2023. While I’m not sharing specific capital figures at the moment, I can say that our focus so far has been on building a solid product, and I’m proud to say our engine is live and working.

Was the company born from within or outside the industry?

Tenax ai was founded outside of the traditional insurance world. I’ve spent the past 15 years in sustainability and climate work, from energy efficiency programs and climate policy to consulting with corporates and building impact measurement tools for financial institutions. My co-founder, Arun, brings a deep background in applied machine learning and spent seven years building telematics products for the automotive insurance industry. Between the two of us, we understand risk and behavior, and we’re passionate about applying that knowledge where it matters most.

Within your domain, what is the current challenge that the industry is facing?

The challenge is twofold. First, the industry is still adapting to the reality of climate risk, especially at the property level. Events like wildfires, hurricanes and floods are increasing, yet many insurers lack tools to assess these risks with the granularity needed for real prevention. Second, there’s a behavioral challenge: how do you get homeowners to act before disaster strikes?

This is where Arun and I get really energized. We're deeply interested in behavior change and how to remove speed bumps that keep people from taking action. Whether that’s helping homeowners understand their risk, connecting them to local retrofitters or directing them to grants and funding, our goal is to make it easy to take smart, protective steps. We believe insurance can be a powerful incentive, and we want to help carriers use that leverage to create change on the ground.

How does Tenax ai take a unique approach to providing value?

Our approach is rooted in combining technical excellence with human-centered design. We don’t just model risk; we help people act on it. Our background in both climate science and behaviorally-informed software development means we’re building tools that go beyond data. They drive decisions. We’re also intentionally building partnerships with retrofitters, contractors and funding sources to create a seamless path from insight to action. We’re not here to just issue alerts; we’re here to enable meaningful, real-world resilience.

What inspired the team to start this company?

I’ve always felt a deep sense of purpose in my work. Every role I’ve taken has been driven by the desire to make a positive impact. Whether it was helping large corporations shape sustainability strategies or building software to measure the environmental impact of financial portfolios, the throughline has always been about creating change.

The idea for Tenax ai emerged when I was working at my last company, where I was COO. Insurers kept coming to us asking for risk data to support their climate models, and we didn’t have a product for them. That gap stuck with me. How could such a critical industry lack the tools to evaluate one of the most pressing risks of our time? I knew I had to do something about it.

Arun and I met through a climate-focused venture builder. We were both looking to start something meaningful. From the start, it felt like a perfect match. Our values, skills and visions aligned completely. He’s incredibly talented and driven by the same desire to make an impact, and it’s been an amazing journey building this together.

Can you share any goals for the next 12 months?

Our focus is on continuing to ramp up commercial traction and work with carriers. And the momentum is building. Beyond that, we’re working to establish partnerships with retrofit vendors, so homeowners can more easily act on the insights we provide. We want to remove all the friction from the process of improving resilience with no delays, no guesswork. We see them as critical to our mission.

Our vision is for Tenax ai to be more than a risk engine. We want to be the bridge between understanding risk and doing something about it for the benefit of both insurers and the communities they serve.

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