Ep 115 How Parametric will fix Commerial Insurance: Descartes Underwriting

Parametric insurance has been with us for quite a while now, so
it is an idea that most of us have become familiar with. We can
all see its advantages, particularly when it comes to almost
instantaneous claims payments with practically zero adjustment
cost. But until recently it has been a hyper specialist corner of
the market, often restricted to very large very high value
contracts such as cat bonds. This is because it is only now that
the cost of technology has come down significantly enough and the
availability of accurate information sources has become wide
enough to make these often bespoke products relevant at the
commercial lines, and even personal lines, levels. There are lots
of small specialist parametric players out there but today’s
guests have seen this opportunity and really grabbed it with both
hands. Tanguy Touffut, CEO and co-founder and Violaine Raybaud,
Head of business development at parametric specialist MGA
Descartes Underwriting don’t do anything by half measures and the
business comes fresh from an eye-popping $120mn fund raise. But
that $120mn is not for capital to underwrite with – it is for an
enormous investment in people, technology and global locations.
And that’s why I asked them to come on the show. Because for an
investment of this size to work, the opportunity will have to be
of the once-in-a-lifetime sort. Tanguy and Violaine clearly
believe so and it is great to hear such passion about the
prospects for application of parametric solutions in a vast
global market like commercial lines. LINKS: Here is the link to
the $120mn funding announcement that I mentioned:
https://www.descartesunderwriting.com/descartes-underwriting-raises-120-million-to-become-a-category-leader-in-corporate-insurance-worldwide/
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com/ We also thank Claims Direct Access
(CDA) for their support today:
https://www.claimsdirectaccess.com/