FOR INSURERS
See mould before it becomes a claim.
Insurers met mould once, in Texas, and answered by excluding it. Mould Detect collects the evidence that makes the risk visible early: independent environmental data, readings from inside buildings, photo scans and specialist assessments, in one data lake. We are launching in Australia to prove the approach and the technology, then plan to expand to the UK, Canada and the US. Insurer partnerships are an opportunity we are building toward; there is no insurer pilot or contract today.
MOULD IS THE NEW ASBESTOS
In Texas, mould claims outran the cover in three years.
Read left to right: how fast Texas mould claims grew, the verdict that made the headlines, and how the industry responded. The comparison with asbestos is about claims exposure. It makes no health comparison.
$420M → $2B+
Texas mould-related insurance claims, 2000 to 2002
BUSINESS PLAN v3.1 · 14 OCT 2026
$32M
jury verdict in a single case, Ballard v. Farmers
BUSINESS PLAN v3.1 · 14 OCT 2026
May 2002
ISO's Fungi or Bacteria Exclusion: cover withdrawn, risk unchanged
BUSINESS PLAN v3.1 · 14 OCT 2026
THE RISK DID NOT LEAVE WITH THE COVER · IT CAN STILL BECOME A LONG-TAIL CLAIMS PROBLEM
THE HEALTH AND COST PICTURE
Damp buildings cost health, and health costs money.
Four facts that size the problem, each with its source.
Up to 75% greater risk of respiratory symptoms and asthma.
The WHO's 2009 dampness and mould guidelines, written by 36 experts reviewing more than 100 studies, put the risk for occupants of damp or mouldy buildings at up to 75% higher, and found that preventing or fixing dampness reduces the harm.
1 in 2 Australian homes report mould or damp.
Asthma Australia's figure, and the reason a risk this common has to be measured rather than guessed.
$28B a year in asthma-related health costs.
Asthma Australia's estimate for Australia, before any building or contents loss is counted.
Sick building syndrome.
The NHS describes it as symptoms you get while you are in a particular building, from headaches and a blocked nose to coughing, wheezing and tiredness, and lists poor ventilation and poorly maintained air conditioning among the possible causes. Ventilation and humidity are what our live data reads, building by building.
NHS · SICK BUILDING SYNDROME
AWAAB'S LAW · ENGLAND
Fixed deadlines for damp and mould, measured in days.
Each row is a clock that starts when a social landlord becomes aware of a hazard. Every one of them needs a timestamped record to prove it was met.
| Duty | Timeframe |
|---|---|
| Emergency hazards | Investigate and carry out safety work within 24 hours. |
| Significant hazards: investigate | Within 10 working days of becoming aware of the hazard. |
| Written summary to the tenant | Within 3 working days of the investigation concluding. |
| Significant hazards: safety work | Complete within 5 working days of the investigation concluding. |
| Supplementary preventative work | Begin within 5 working days; if that is not possible, physically start within 12 weeks, and finish within a reasonable time. |
| Safety work cannot be done in time | Provide suitable alternative accommodation at the landlord's expense. |
Awaab's Law is named after Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 aged two from a severe respiratory condition due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home, after his parents had complained repeatedly to their social landlord for three years. The requirements came into force on 27 October 2025.
GOV.UK · AWAAB'S LAW: GUIDANCE FOR SOCIAL LANDLORDS, TIMEFRAMES FOR REPAIRS
WHAT AWAAB'S LAW REQUIRES
A legal duty in every social tenancy, proved by the landlord's own records.
Four things an underwriter should know about the law, each linked to the official source.
Who it binds.
Registered providers of social housing in England: local authorities and housing associations. The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 writes compliance into every social tenancy as an implied term, and the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 set the detail.
GOV.UK GUIDANCEDamp and mould first, more hazards to follow.
From 27 October 2025: all emergency hazards, and damp and mould that present a significant risk of harm. In 2026: excess cold and heat, falls, structural collapse and explosions, fire and electrical hazards, and hygiene and food safety. In 2027: every remaining hazard in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System except overcrowding.
GOV.UK · PHASINGRecords are the defence.
A landlord has a defence if it can show it took all reasonable steps to comply. The guidance asks for clear records of engagement, investigations and communications. Tenants can take a landlord to court for breach, and the Housing Ombudsman can find maladministration when time limits are missed.
GOV.UK · RECORDS AND REDRESSPlanned
Private rentals are next.
The government's roadmap for the Renters' Rights Act 2025 says it will extend Awaab's Law to the private rented sector, with legally enforceable timeframes for private landlords. No date is set: the timing is subject to consultation.
GOV.UK · RENTERS' RIGHTS ROADMAP
WHAT IT COULD MEAN FOR INSURERS
When the law starts a clock, dated evidence becomes part of the risk.
The first two cards are our reading of the law's effect on cover; the last two are the regulation we can cite beyond England, and what it signals. None of this is legal advice.
Missed deadlines could become liability claims.
A tenant who can sue for breach, and an ombudsman who can find maladministration, turn a slow repair into a potential claim against the landlord. Insurers of social landlords could start to ask how the clock is being kept.
Earlier action could mean smaller losses.
Fixed timeframes push damp to be found and fixed sooner, while it is a repair and before it is a remediation. A dated scan, an assessment and the conditions behind them are the record a landlord, and its insurer, could rely on.
In force
Scotland followed within a year, for private landlords too.
The Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026 came into force on 6 October 2026 for social and private landlords: investigate damp or mould within 10 working days, report within 3, and start repairs within 5. Social landlords must finish within 20 working days.
GOV.SCOT GUIDANCEA direction of travel for other markets.
Two UK nations putting damp and mould on a legal clock signals where housing regulation could head elsewhere. Australia's National Construction Code 2025 condensation management provisions push the same way. Mould Detect plans to follow this path from Australia to the UK, then Canada and the US; we make no forecast of when, or whether, those markets legislate.
ONE COMPANY, ONE PLATFORM
Prevent, protect, detect and correct, in one loop.
Follow the ring clockwise from the top. Each step hands its result to the next, and every outcome returns to the data lake at the centre. The chips beside each step say how much of it runs today.
- Prevent.LiveLive humidity, air quality and a ventilation planner say when to open a window; partner ventilation and treatment products handle the rest.
- Protect.PrototypeSensor boards and alerts watch a building between visits; the Mould Atlas will forecast where risk is rising.
- Detect.BetaAI Vision reads one photo of a suspect surface and returns a verdict with a confidence score in under 60 seconds.
- Correct.PartnersLikely-positive scans route to laboratory testing with approved partners and to remediation specialists, who correct the conditions behind the damp and the growth itself; the outcome returns to the data lake.
THE MOULD ATLAS
A risk engine fed by data an insurer cannot collect alone.
Sources on the left feed the data lake; the lake feeds the Mould Atlas, Mould Detect's mould risk prediction engine. Filled phases run today; outlined phases are the roadmap.
- Independent environmental feeds.LiveERA5-Land climate history, NOAA GFS forecasts, GloFAS river flood and CAMS air quality, collected for Australia today.
- Readings from inside buildings.PrototypeSensor boards post to the same lake on a sensor-agnostic schema: a new sensor adds a key, not a new pipeline.
- Scans, assessments and lab results.CollectingAI Vision scans, Mould Assessment reports and partner lab results become the labels the Atlas learns from.
- Phases 0 and 1 run today.LiveThe data lake, and a published VTT mould-growth model per location served as /v1/mould-index. It is driven by outdoor conditions and has not yet been validated against indoor damage.
- Phases 2 to 4 are the roadmap.RoadmapLearn the outdoor-to-indoor transfer by building type, train on verified outcomes, then predict risk by building type, postcode, climate zone and season.
Over time the Atlas is designed to output mould risk by building type and location, seasonal forecasts, and the trigger thresholds that automated responses depend on, with a university research partner helping to improve the models.
PARAMETRIC COVER · AN OPPORTUNITY
Independent data that could trigger cover, or prevent the claim.
Read top to bottom: the independent data sources, the humidity line rising until it crosses a threshold agreed in advance, then the responses that fire automatically.
- Oracles.LiveIndependent data no party to the contract controls: weather and flood feeds, in-building sensors, photo scans, specialist assessments and lab results.
- A threshold agreed in advance.IllustrativeFor example relative humidity above X% for N days, a GloFAS flood exceedance, or a condensation risk from the dew-point spread.
- A. Environmental control.Phase 4Ventilation, a dehumidifier or the diffuser switched on when a trigger fires.
- B. Alerts.PrototypeIoT alerting to landlords, facilities and maintenance teams, early.
- C. Remediation booking.PartnersA lab test or an approved remediator, booked through the supplier list.
- D. Data and API feed.LiveThe same readings delivered to partners, including insurers, into their own systems.
Index-based (parametric) products pay or act when an independently measured index crosses an agreed threshold, so they rely on objective, verifiable data (Swiss Re Corporate Solutions). Mould Detect already collects that kind of data for Australia. An insurer could use the same readings to price cover, to trigger a payment, or to fire a prevention response before damage becomes a claim. Insurer data partnerships are later-round optionality, and no insurance revenue is in our plan.
PROTOTYPE HARDWARE
Hardware that reads the room between visits.
Left, the board running today. Right, the diffuser in design. Each caption says which is which.
The schema, the sensor phases and the roadmap are on the IoT and embedded devices page.
THE MOAT
What a competitor would have to rebuild: years of data and partners.
Inputs at the edges feed the lake in the centre. The wheel turns as each stage feeds the next: more scans, more labelled data, better models, more users.
- Weather and climate.LiveCopernicus ERA5-Land history and NOAA GFS forecasts, collected for Australia today.
- Flood and air quality.LiveGloFAS river-flood forecasts and CAMS air quality, in the same lake.
- Building-remediation images.PartnersPhotographs from a remediation network with 1,500+ verified remediation projects behind it.
- Lab results from partners.CollectingLab results collated through approved remediators, cleaners and lab partners; collation is under way and becomes the highest-grade ground truth.
- Specialist assessments.BetaRoom-by-room reports from the Mould Assessment app, saved as structured data.
AI has made software cheap to write, so an app on its own is easy to copy. The economic model that brings trades, inspectors, labs and remediators onto one platform is harder to copy, and so are the partnerships behind it and the data they accumulate: weather and environmental history, building-remediation images, and lab results from partners as collation completes.
AI Vision, the model that reads a photo of a suspect surface, has been reviewed by two patent lawyers and confirmed as worthy of a patent application.
WHERE WE LAUNCH
Proven in Australia first, then the markets where the law is moving.
In order: the markets we plan to enter. The UK comes next because Awaab's Law already sets the clock.
Now
Australia: prove the approach and the technology.
Australia is our testing ground. One in two homes have damp or mould, our founders' trade network is here, and our environmental data covers Australia.
Planned
The United Kingdom, next.
The UK puts a legal clock on mould: Awaab's Law, in force since 27 October 2025. Fast triage and a dated record help landlords act in time. Entry is gated on revenue.
Planned
Canada and the US, at Series A.
Canada and the US follow, after the UK. Where claims and property deals rely on accredited lab results, as in the US, a partner lab supplies the result and Mould Detect supplies the triage and referral.
Sources
- GOV.UK · Awaab's Law: guidance for social landlords, timeframes for repairs in the social rented sector
- GOV.UK · Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: our roadmap for reforming the private rented sector (13 November 2025)
- Scottish Government · Awaab's Law: guidance for landlords in Scotland (September 2026)
- NHS · Sick building syndrome
- WHO · Guidelines for indoor air quality: dampness and mould (2009)
- Swiss Re Corporate Solutions · What is parametric insurance?
- Asthma Australia · prevalence of mould and damp in Australian homes; annual asthma-related costs · as cited in the Mould Detect pitch deck, 14 Oct 2026
- Mould Detect business plan v3.1 · 14 October 2026 · Texas claims, Ballard v. Farmers, ISO exclusion; platform, Mould Atlas and IoT statuses
- Mould Detect · Ventures Australia 2026 deck, slides 20 and 39 · diffuser concept design; market sequence: Australia, then the UK, then Canada and the US
Talk to us about data partnerships.
If you are exploring mould prevention, evidence or parametric products, we will walk you through the data lake, the API and the Atlas roadmap.
HELLO@MOULDDETECT.AI · SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA