Former chairman, CEO and founder of Renaissance Re Jim Stanard's latest venture has received a financial boost from private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners LLC.

Mr. Stanard, who resigned from RenRe, which he had founded in late 1992, after the company had restated its 2001, 2002 and 2003 earnings due to a mis-accounted finite reinsurance deal, went on to set up reinsurance brokerage TigerRisk Partners LLC along with Rod Fox, former CEO of Praetorian, last year.

Aquiline's initial investment will support the continued growth of TigerRisk, with substantial additional equity available for takeovers in the US and Europe and to further develop its platform, New York-based Aquiline said in a statement yesterday, without revealing how much it invested.

Greenwich, Connecticut-based TigerRisk launched in 2008 as Alpha Re with financing mainly through privately-held investment company F&S Ventures, which Mr. Stanard and Mr. Fox own.

"Rod's and Jim's records of success in building businesses in reinsurance and risk management position them well to succeed on a global basis as an independent adviser," said Jeff Greenberg, CEO of Aquiline, in the statement. "We believe that insurers value this degree of experience and market knowledge."

In the statement, Messrs. Stanard and Fox said that consolidation in the reinsurance brokerage industry has reduced the options available for cedents and that the market was "ripe" for an alternative.

Aquiline's investment in TigerRisk came on the heels of Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC's announcement on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire London-based reinsurance broker Rattner Mackenzie Ltd. from parent company HCC Insurance Holdings Inc.

That announcement came nearly six months after Guy Carpenter completed its purchase of rival reinsurance brokerage John B Collins Associates Inc. and just over a year after Aon Corp. bought London-based Benfield Group Ltd. for $1.75 billion in cash.

Aquiline was the original major investor in Bermuda-based reinsurer Validus Holdings Ltd. at its formation in 2005 and still owns more than five percent of the company.