Ep241 Ben Hubbard Parsyl: In the business of rewarding the best clients

I’d like you to cast your mind back to 2016 when the insurtech
phenomenon really started to emerge.


It was a very exciting time as tech entrepreneurs and venture
capitalists had finally spotted the huge opportunities that would
become available if they started to use their skill and financial
wherewithal to help transform the way the global insurance
industry goes about its business. The task was daunting, but the
possibilities seemed endless.


That year Ben Hubbard co-founded Parsyl, the business he still
heads today.


The firm made it into the first cohort of the Lloyd’s Lab and
hasn’t looked back.


Now in 2025 Parsyl has come through its adolescence and has a
made an impact in a niche segment of the cargo market where it
has first been able to use its tech savvy to give itself a
sustainable competitive edge.


Now eight years into the project, I’d argue the excitement is now
greater because Parsyl is only just getting going and is poised
to move into new lines of business.


Parsyl’s insurtech peers that didn’t make it usually failed
because they were tech companies that didn’t know if they wanted
to completely disrupt or collaborate with the incumbent insurance
market – and it also turned out that many of them fundamentally
underestimated how hard insurance can be to execute well and at
the right scale. 


Parsyl is still here and thriving because it embedded itself in
an entrepreneurial corner of the Lloyd’s market and has taken the
best it has to offer, while adding its own extraordinary, almost
alien layer of technological understanding on top.


It’s a best of both worlds philosophy.


So often we hear or read about the future of underwriting, as if
it is something that hasn’t quite arrived yet, but will come
eventually, if only we can be a little more patient.


Well, the wait is over – what Parsyl has built has fulfilled the
promise of 2016 and then some


Ben and I met face to face on a stormy London afternoon in winter
and the conversation fairly crackled along.


I defy you not to be enthused by Ben’s affable and easy-to-digest
philosophy on how to make insurance better, more relevant to
clients and more profitable for its capital backers.


Just to give you a taste, this is a business that already runs
100% of its submissions through Ai, constantly revamps its
products over rolling two-week cycles and updates its models from
experience and new third-party data every four months.


For incumbents this is jaw-dropping stuff. Luckily for us Ben is
a friendly face who can help make this revolution palatable and
easy to understand.


The future’s already here, so listen on to get yourself up to
date. LINKS: We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo:
https://www.advantagego.com