Young Bermuda talent is being invited to join a company building the next generation of cyber reinsurance products.

A UK company with its underwriting based on the island is expecting that new investment will facilitate an expansion of their Bermuda platform – and they are inviting Bermudian university graduates to join them.

The data-driven underwriting and risk analytics business, Envelop Risk Analytics, announced a Series B investment of $130 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

The financing will facilitate Envelop Risk’s plans to expand its proprietary machine-learning and data-driven underwriting activity in London and Bermuda, with hopes to fuel growth into new markets globally, and beyond cyber (re)insurance.

The company’s underwriting decisions are made from Bermuda and most of the underwriting decision makers are here.

They are targeting new products they believe will improve Bermuda’s leadership in fintech and a significant portion of the new investment money may be dedicated to the Bermuda operations.

Chief underwriting officer Ari Chatterjee said: “Bermuda is one of the most innovative insurance jurisdictions in the world. As the premier said, it is the “Silicon Valley of the Atlantic”.

“We are here to turn this vision into a reality, combining technology with capital. Having SoftBank in the journey makes it more achievable.

“We invite any Bermudian with a university degree in computer science, statistics, or actuarial sciences and who would like to be a part of this journey, to speak with us.”

Envelop Risk is working with Bermuda based firms to deliver solutions they believe could fundamentally improve the reinsurance value chain over the next few years.

Mr Chatterjee said: “Future building is a combination of vision and investors who believe in it.

“SoftBank is undoubtedly the largest technology investor and a visionary. We are delighted to work with SoftBank to build the future of the insurance industry using augmented intelligence (human + AI) and, build an ecosystem that is scalable and profitable.

“Cyber Insurance is here to grow, although, the reinsurance markets have not responded well to fill the gaps. Envelop enables the industry to improve the cyber reinsurance offering utilising data and algorithms.”

As part of the transaction, Neil Cunha-Gomes, Investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join Envelop Risk’s board of directors. The transaction is planned to close in October 2021, subject to shareholder approval.

The Envelop team combines decades of insurance and capital markets experience with cybersecurity, engineering, artificial intelligence, and data analytics experts from deep tech enterprises like defence, aerospace, and energy.

Envelop Risk underwrites bespoke reinsurance for global insurance firms, differentiating its products through the application of advanced cyber analytics, enabling customers to manage their portfolios with greater precision.

The firm can offer reinsurance capacity combined with pricing technology, policy wording, and claims support to introduce proven cyber insurance capabilities into maturing cyber insurance markets. Additionally, Envelop partners with cyber technology firms to launch embedded insurance solutions.

The company said it has become a force in cyber reinsurance in less than five years, capturing significant market share and competing with the giants in the industry. It has underwritten over $250 million of business since 2018, while comfortably besting industry benchmarks for performance.

Envelop Risk plans to use the proceeds from the round to expand operations in cyber reinsurance and cyber technology partnerships, while continuing to invest heavily in predictive analytics for assessing the likely economic consequences of cyber-risks to commercial entities.

As cyber has become a key trigger in nearly every business area, the firm intends to launch new products in adjacent areas of corporate risk over the next year. Critically, this raise will establish a hybrid balance sheet model; enabling the firm to deploy its own risk capital in alignment with existing partners.

Envelop Risk co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Spry, stated, “We are delighted to have reached such a significant milestone in our funding journey. This transaction will allow us to continue our leadership in data-driven specialty (re)insurance underwriting and will be transformational for our business reach and activity.

“For the first time Envelop Risk will be able to assume positions in risk capital, which gives us greater alignment with our partners. We are all really excited to work with SoftBank Investment Advisers and together meet the huge opportunities that we see present in emerging and complex risk underwriting.”

Paul Guthrie, Co-founder and COO of Envelop commented “We know that all companies of all sizes will eventually safeguard against increased risk through robust cyber insurance policies. Digital systems have reshaped our world, but they are also vulnerable individually, and as integrated networks.

“Cyber insurance plays a critical protective role. Envelop deploys capital thoughtfully into the cyber insurance ecosystem, providing assurance that mitigation resources are available immediately upon an attack, so organisations can continue to function in the face of these risks.”

Karol Niewiadomski, Senior Investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers, said: “While companies all over the world are improving their digital preparedness, the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve at a rapid rate.

“We believe Envelop Risk has developed a proprietary data-driven approach to meet this threat through an enhanced level of protection that directly translates to lower loss ratios. We’re pleased to partner with Envelop Risk in its journey to enable risk capital and provide much needed capacity to the nascent cyber-risk market.”