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A new managing general agency (MGA) platform was recently launched in London in partnership with insurance service provider Xceedance.

The new business, called NuVenture International, was formed by former Aon Underwriting Managers executive Andy Colbran (pictured), who will lead the firm as its first chief executive officer.

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The competition watchdog’s review, under the informal merger review process guidelines, was commenced last October. It was also in late 2020 when other regulators like the European Commission (EC) and New Zealand’s Commerce Commission outlined their respective preliminary issues surrounding the mammoth union.

Earlier this month, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore ran a consultation as part of its own regulatory probe. The EC, meanwhile, has extended its decision deadline by 10 working days to July 27, 2021.

As the European Union’s executive arm, part of the commission’s remit is assessing mergers to prevent market concentrations that significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area. In 2019, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group had to offload its global aerospace practice so Marsh McLennan’s takeover could get the EC all-clear.

It’s been reported that certain businesses within Aon-WTW will also have to be sold in order to get the transaction across the finish line. 

In a recent interview with Insurance Business, Aon Australia chief executive James Baum stated: “Everybody understands that there’s a role for regulators all around the world to play, and that’s what everybody is working through at the moment.”

Both domiciled in Ireland and headquartered in the UK, Aon and WTW operate in more than 120 and 140 countries, respectively.

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Middleton was formerly CEO of employment benefits consultancy Portus, which was acquired by Aon in 2017. During his tenure at Portus, Middleton was part of the committees of both GRiD and AMII, and he had shown strong interest in developing AMII’s education and training offering to members.

“I was particularly proud that during my chairmanship we developed the GRiD training academy which is still going strong,” Middleton said at the online meeting. “I believe that strong industry bodies are vital for the future of our industry and think that we should look at how we develop and train the next generation of AMII membership.”

Since the acquisition of Portus, Middleton has held roles as executive director of Benefits Advisory Services (BAS) and as a consultant at CWB – both in the employment benefits space. He is also a trustee of charities Smile for Joel and Sporting Minds UK.

Middleton called for a more integrated approach in the PMI market in a post-pandemic environment.

“Mental health and wellbeing are top of most of our clients’ objectives,” he said. “I am currently a trustee of a mental health charity that supports athletes and I have been staggered by the amount of young people seeking help, particularly in the last 12 months.

“Yet as an industry in both healthcare and risk we are still very much working in silos and are still product driven. We really need to work more closely as physical, financial, mental, and social wellbeing cannot and should not be treated separately.”

The appointment comes at a time where the PMI industry has had to respond to the wide-ranging impact of a global pandemic and a new post-Brexit reality.

“Insurers have responded well, with a willingness to help and support intermediaries and the end customer, with telemedicine and additional support services. It is also commendable that PMI insurers made a pledge to not profit from the pandemic and some have already made appropriate premium refunds to clients in this respect,” Middleton said.

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“We develop evidence on five reasons for this large shift: better-than-expected WFH experiences, new investments in physical and human capital that enable WFH, greatly diminished stigma associated with WFH, lingering concerns about crowds and contagion risks, and a pandemic-driven surge in technological innovations that support WFH,” they said.

Another recent study, however, found that the WFH productivity boom of the pandemic also has a “human cost”. The downside? High productivity has left people feeling exhausted at the end of their workday.

Meanwhile, the social isolation remote workers feel has also affected how they collaborate and innovate with their teams and grow their personal and professional network. These, in effect, have been shown to undo any productivity gains that companies have seen in the past year.

Even top organisations have their own ideas of what the workforce of the future would look like and how post-COVID work trends would come to reshape their corporate culture. On one end of the spectrum, companies like Twitter and Facebook appear to be more open to the idea of remote work becoming a permanent option even after the global crisis wanes.

Somewhere in the middle, the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft are leaning towards reopening offices soon and introducing hybrid work arrangements. On the far end, big banks such as Goldman Sachs plan to reverse course and “correct [the effects of WFH] as quickly as possible”.

“Over the past year, no area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work,” shared Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose own company is advocating for flexible or hybrid working.

“Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly – inclusive of collaboration, learning and well-being, to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work,” he said.

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ERS is expanding its commercial insurance capabilities with two senior appointments: Dr Federico Waisman, as head of underwriting management, and Ciaran Waters, senior underwriter for US catastrophe.

According to a statement by the specialist insurer, the hires are part of its strategy to scale existing and enter new segments including property, reinsurance, marine, professional lines and specialty.

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Lowe noted that he has been lucky to have some very supportive mentors along the way who coached him on what it means to be an insurance leader and who helped support him when he wanted to pave his own path forward. After a stint at another local brokerage, he moved to Needham, he said, and in 2000 when its owner Michael Needham decided to retire, he bought the business and has been steadily growing it both organically and through acquisition ever since.

“It’s interesting,” he said, “because initially, I thought I would eventually be leaving Needham to set up another broker but when I was in discussions, the way that we did the mechanism meant I ended up buying where I was working, so I never had to leave and strike out on my own. Buying into what I was already dealing with made it a lot easier, so I’m grateful for the help I’ve had along the way from people 20 and 30 years my senior, who have been doing insurance since the 60s really.”

The key to always finding the next step forward lies in having confidence in your work ethic, he said, and not being afraid to put your head down, work hard and seize whatever opportunities may arise. It is this eye on the future that led to the creation of Needham’s new administration and integration service. The service is aimed at administrators and liquidators working in conjunction with insurers, looking to ensure policyholders continue to receive insurance services when their original providers can no longer help them.

Inspire Insurance Services, which went into liquidation last November, was the catalyst for this idea, Lowe said, as Needham purchased its £5 million portfolio from liquidators who approached the brokerage after the FCA ordered Inspire to cease trading. It was a Friday afternoon when he received the call from the liquidators saying Needham was their pick and they would send across all the necessary data to be ready to go on Monday morning.

“After the initial ‘wow’, we contacted our IT company and told them what we needed to be done – to make sure all the clients’ phone numbers were diverted to us, and all their emails diverted to us. We did that over the weekend and on Monday morning the phones lit up like a Christmas tree,” he said. “Looking back it was a bit bonkers and we had everybody working long hours, weekends, that kind of thing. But we all knew when it was sorted that we would all benefit from it, and the team have been really amazing. And it’s been good fun too, a real challenge and very exciting.”

Read more: FCA issues update on Inspire Insurance Services

It was only 48 hours before all communication channels were established, he said, and the team was checking the cover of every new client to ensure it was up to date and allowing each client to discuss their insurance needs individually. Through the entire process, Needham’s team learnt a lot about what to do if a similar thing occurred again, including what went well and what could have been done better. With this experience behind them, the plan now is to make Needham the first port of call in the event of similar events occurring.

Handling the handover of a portfolio under such circumstances means balancing three key stakeholders, he said, and the clients are the first of these. From a personal perspective, Lowe said, it has been a great experience getting to speak with the new clients joining under the portfolio and finding out about their businesses and what they do. It was a relief for each of them to get the email from Needham and realise that their coverage was not being impacted by Inspire ceasing trading, he said, and having those conversations was a great way to get to know them on a personal level and find out what makes their business tick.

The other stakeholders involved are the insurance companies and the premium finance houses which both have a vested interest in how a policy performs. Having had the experience of dealing with Inspire, Lowe and his team now feel empowered to repeat that success and are actively looking for new opportunities to do so, in addition to the range of other insurance and support services they offer.

“We’re now several months into the Inspire acquisition,” he said, “and if we had to repeat it again we would know how to deal with any pitfalls earlier. So, what we’re doing now is trying to engage with insurance company managers so if they do have a case that comes across their desk where one of their brokers has unfortunately closed, they will remember that we sorted out Inspire and get us involved early on so the clients have got someone to ring… If it happens again, we will have a dedicated team primed to deal with all the clients and make sure they know they will be looked after.”

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In her new role, Rowlay will focus on developing and implementing key business strategies, including overseeing a new speed-to-market initiative, as well as assuming responsibility for the company’s regional trading and online underwriting teams, Arch said in a statement. She was previously regional director for the North of the UK, having joined the UK regional division following its launch. Before joining Arch, she was regional director – North West at Fusion Insurance Services.

Meanwhile, Peters will focus on driving business production and heightening broker engagement levels across the branch network. He was previously regional director for the South of the UK, having also joined Arch with the launch of the UK regional division in 2019. Prior to this, he was managing director, London at Towergate Insurance.

Rowlay and Peters will become part of Arch’s UK executive committee, along with Bashford, Mike Bottle, who is head of the UK regional strategy and distribution team, and Stuart Danskin, UK regional director of underwriting.

“The promotions of Vicky and Neil to national roles are important to our continuing evolution and add further impetus to our growth strategy,” said Bashford. “As national directors with responsibilities across our entire UK regional business, they will be charged with developing new opportunities to deliver class-leading solutions to our broking partners and maximising long-term, profitable, sustainable growth across the division.”

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The body will be led by insurance risk and commercial law firm BLM, and will include representatives from the Association of British Insurers (ABI), Aon, Arch Insurance International, Hiscox, Pen Underwriting, QBE, Zurich, loss adjuster Sedgwick, forensic investigators Hawkins, and GJB Consultancy.

Among the task force’s stated goals are identifying market trends, generating awareness of emerging issues, formulating claims strategies and lobbying for change in the property damage market.

“Property damage claims, across both personal and commercial lines, are on the rise and there is a clear need for a forum bringing different parts of the market together to focus on enhancing risk prevention, claims management and helping mitigate losses, for the benefit of customers and the wider market,” said John O’Shea, partner and head of property damage & recovery at BLM. “The response to the task force has been very positive and we look forward to welcoming more members during the year. Fraud is also an area where collaboration is needed – particularly around escape of water – and one where we can bring real insight and data-driven intelligence to the table.”

The task force will meet quarterly, with the first meeting scheduled this month. It will initially focus on flooding claims and property flood resilience, before expanding into other property damage claims issues in future meetings.

“It is great to be involved in this task force, bringing together leading figures in the industry to improve awareness and understanding of property claims issues,” added Laura Hughes, manager of general insurance policy, ABI. “This is a good opportunity to work collaboratively to improve outcomes for policyholders, insurers and their supply chains. I am looking forward to seeing how this develops.”

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Booming claims, a hardening market and a growing body of environmental activism are all adding to the pressure on environmental coverage – but which policies are the best?

Many of your clients will face environmental risk – and it’s important that you can offer them best in class solutions – but which are those? Insurance Business UK is carrying out a major industry survey – and we’d like you to be an important part of that research. If you deal with environmental cover for your clients, join our other experts letting the industry know which policies you think are best – and what is lacking in some.

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Insurance Business searched business information website Crunchbase’s data to find the country’s leading insurtech providers based on total investments. Here are the top 30 insurtech companies in the UK to watch out for in 2021:

1. Zego
Total funding: $201.7 million (£146.5 million)
Number of investors: 12
Number of acquisitions: 1

Zego provides simple and flexible policies through its mobile app and website, covering businesses of all types and sizes. It offers a range of motor, professional, and commercial insurance policies. The start-up continues to launch new products and expand into new countries.

2. Gryphon Group Holdings
Total funding: £180 million
Number of investors: 2

Gryphon Group Holdings’ infrastructure is based on digital and cloud-based technologies. Liss Systems, a UK company owned by Nasdaq-listed technology group EXL, serves as the firm’s core platform technology partner, while Space acts as its digital interface technology partner. The company focuses on life, critical illness, and income protection, and sells through intermediaries. The business has acquired the rights to use the Guardian brand.

3. Bought by Many
Total funding: £105.9 million
Number of investors: 7
Number of acquisitions: 2

Bought By Many uses search and social media data to sell insurance and disrupt insurance distribution. It is the first UK pet insurer to offer online form-free claims. The company designed its policies using more than 40,000 customers reviews. As a result, its insurance policies boast features that are new to the market and, at the same time, it was able to avoid adding features that clients do not like about other policies.

4. Tractable
Total funding: $59.9 million (£43.5 million)
Number of investors: 16

Tractable is a software company that develops artificial intelligence for accident and disaster recovery. Its AI can estimate the repair costs just by looking at photos of the damage through the use of deep learning to automate visual damage appraisal. Tractable’s AI Review and AI Estimating products help insurance companies improve their claims processes and produce live, end-to-end estimates of vehicle damage.

5. Cytora
Total funding: $41.4 million (£30 million)
Number of investors: 13

Cytora has developed a technology called Risk Engine, which can be used by commercial insurers to help them target and price risk using AI algorithms. The company has already developed partnerships with major insurance providers, including QBE, XL Catlin, and Starr.

6. Marshmallow
Number of investors: $31.2 million (£22.7 million)
Number of acquisitions: 6

Marshmallow focuses on car insurance and uses a proprietary pricing algorithm to lower prices for foreign-born drivers. The firm’s mission is to improve the financial health of the 250 million people who live in a foreign country by offering affordable insurance. To achieve this goal, the company says it invests in technology to reduce operating costs and passes those savings on to its members.

7. Instanda
Total funding: $28 million (£20.3 million)
Number of investors: 4

Instanda provides insurers and brokers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) management tool to build, launch, distribute, and monitor new insurance products in a fraction of the time it would traditionally take. The company has already partnered with several insurance providers, underwriters, and brokers in North and South America, Europe, and Australia.

8. Quantemplate
Total funding: $25.6 million (£18.6 million)
Number of investors: 13

Founded by insurance industry veterans and computer scientists, Quantemplate offers a platform for data integration, automation, and analytics for reinsurance, P&C, and life insurance companies. It was recently named a European FinTech Top 50 company and a Global Insurtech Top 21.

9. Hometree
Total funding: $24.4 million (£17.7 million)
Number of investors: 17

Hometree offers a range of products and services, including home coverage plans that protect homeowners against breakdowns in their heating, plumbing, and electrical systems. 

10. Superscript
Total funding: $24.4 million (£17.7 million)
Number of investors: 9

Superscript, formerly known as Digital Risks, offers a host of commercial insurance products designed to meet the evolving needs of small to medium-sized businesses. It provides bespoke subscription-based coverage for all types of risks. The company has partnerships with some of the world’s biggest underwriters.

11. Cuvva
Total funding: £17 million
Number of investors: 14

Cuvva is an hourly car insurance start-up that has sold more than three million policies and supports more than 450,000 clients. Its user-friendly mobile app provides customers an instant quote just by keying a registration number, providing an estimate of the car’s value they are borrowing, choosing a time they want to be covered for, and taking a picture of the vehicle. Cuvva also has access to various data sources to check driving licence data and protect against fraud.

12. By Miles
Total funding: $21.3 million (£15.8 million)
Number of investors: 8

By Miles offers pay-per-mile car insurance that is specifically designed for lower mileage drivers. The insurtech charges car owners a fixed annual fee to cover their cars while parked and then bills them monthly, based on the number of miles that they drive.

13. Trunomi
Total funding: $16.3 million (£11.8 million)
Number of investors: 10

Trunomi offers data rights management technology that enables businesses to request, receive, and capture customer consent to the use of their personal data. However, it does not see or store customers’ personal data due to its patented technology, and because of this, the start-up’s technology is not bound by jurisdictional borders surrounding personal data.

14. DeadHappy
Total funding: $12.8 million (£9.3 million)
Number of investors: 5

DeadHappy provides digital pay-as-you-go life insurance services. The insurtech specializes in flexible life insurance policies. Its offerings include pricing insurance based on current circumstances and the option to add further coverage on a rolling basis.

15. Anorak Technologies
Total funding: $12.4 million (£9 million)
Number of investors: 5

Anorak offers a platform that uses data science and machine learning to find the life insurance policy suited to the user. It is backed by Kamet, the insurtech start-up studio backed by AXA Group’s knowledge, capital, and assets.

16. Wrisk
Total funding: $12 million (£8.7 million)
Number of investors: 10

Wrisk is a trusted partner to insurers and brands, helping them launch and operate tailor-made, regulated insurance solutions. The company’s insurance app covers virtually everything from cars and technology to furniture and jewellery. Wrisk also provides a monthly auto-payment plan, so customers are not locked into a full year’s insurance.

17. Canopy
Total funding: $9.6 million (£7 million)
Number of investors: 5

Canopy seeks to re-engineer the property rental market by allowing users to pay their rent via smartphone and helping them save by replacing their cash deposit with the DepositFree insurance policy.

18. Setoo
Total funding: $9.4 million (£6.8 million)
Number of investors: 1

Setoo’s SaaS platform automates the process of creating, integrating, and distributing protection products. The platform can create new, super-targeted protections within minutes, addressing consumers’ actual concerns, and generating automatic compensation without the need to file any claim. Like Anorak, Setoo is backed by Kamet.

19. Laka
Total funding: $9.4m (£6.8 million)
Number of investors: 7

Laka offers a peer-to-peer bicycle insurance platform to cover bicycles and other cycling equipment in the event of theft or damage.

20. Cazana
Total funding: $9.3 million (£6.7 million)
Number of investors: 8
Number of acquisitions: 1

Cazana uses big data and predictive analytics in assessing millions of automotive transactions daily to determine the value and risk associated with every vehicle on the road. Its systems are used by manufacturers, dealerships, finance companies, and insurers globally.

21. So-sure
Total funding: $8.7 million (£6.3 million)
Number of investors: 4

So-sure has created a digital platform for the entire insurance value chain, using a proprietary model and anti-fraud technology to deliver what it calls “win-win insurance.” The company offers customers a 10 times faster claims process and up to 80% money back if clients do not claim. For underwriters, it provides an increase on addressable market while reducing loss ratio.

22. Urban Jungle
Total funding: $8.2 million (£6 million)
Number of investors: 7

Urban Jungle uses technology to help young customers get access to cheaper and better home insurance. The company offers building, home contents, and tenants liability insurance.

23. Neos
Total funding: £6 million
Number of investors: 10

Neos bundles advanced IoT-enabled hardware, 24/7 support, and unlimited building and contents home insurance in a mobile phone app. Customers can use the app to look at dashboards or live camera feeds, respond to issues such as a leak or intruder, and contact the Neos team to get professional assistance.

24. Digital Fineprint
Total funding: $7.1 million (£5.2 million)
Number of investors: 10

Digital Fineprint (DFP) builds AI and big data tech solutions aimed at helping insurers and brokers protect businesses. The DFP Risk Atlas platform creates actionable SME insights that help insurers deepen existing relationships and build strong new ones at every stage of their customer engagement process.

25. Insurwave
Total funding: £5 million

Insurwave’s SaaS platform connects insurance buyers, brokers, and sellers. It uses cloud and cryptography technologies to reduce corporate risk and enables the elimination of tedious reconciliation, high data integrity, and greater insight for insurance buyers, brokers, underwriters, and reinsurers.

26. Corax
Total funding: $5.2 million (£3.8 million)

Corax provides data, modelling, and loss analytics on the cyber exposure of millions of interconnected companies worldwide via its scalable tech platform, extensive dataset, and AI-enabled probabilistic modelling. Corax is used by insurance and reinsurance carriers to accurately underwrite and manage cyber risk exposure. It is also used by insurance brokers and agents to provide clients with precise cyber risk assessment and cover recommendations.

27. Humn.ai
Total funding: £4.7 million
Number of investors: 4

Humn.ai provides fleet insurance and risk management services. The company uses its Rideshur platform to accurately price any road segment in real-time.

28. Artificial Labs
Total funding: £4.2 million
Number of investors: 2

Artificial Labs provides building tools for insurers that allow them to operate faster, and more efficiently and accurately. These tools are built on top of a shared core, called ArtificialOS, which is a suite of API-driven building blocks designed for insurers, brokers, and underwriters of all sizes. Artificial Lab’s service-based architecture means it can quickly combine these blocks and integrate applications according to insurer requirements, from policy management to AI-based automated claims.

29. Insly
Total funding: €4.9 million (£4.2 million)
Number of investors: 10

Insly is a cloud-based platform that allows insurance brokers to search and manage clients, policies, objects, and payments. It essentially serves as a customer relationship management platform for the insurance sector.

30. Akinova
Total funding: $4.1 million (£3 million)
Number of investors: 5

Akinova was founded by insurance, technology, and capital market experts. It acts as an independent electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of insurance risks. Akinova has already partnered with several industry giants, including Hiscox and MS&AD Insurance.

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