Superscript, a bespoke insurance coverage supplier for SMEs, raises $54 million • robotechcompany.com
Superscript, an insurance coverage dealer and tech platform focusing on SMEs and “high-growth” tech corporations, has raised £45 million ($54 million) in a Sequence B spherical of funding
Based out of London in 2015, Superscript constitutes two core insurance coverage companies: an online-only “self-serve” platform that’s obtainable to U.Okay. clients together with SMEs, sole merchants, and landlords, and an suggested broking service known as SuperscriptQ that’s obtainable within the U.Okay. and throughout the European Financial Space (EEA). That is focused at tech companies with advanced dangers which might be tougher to insure akin to medical malpractice or skilled indemnity, with clients together with London-based fintech unicorn Paddle.
The underwriting issue
As with nearly each different sector, the insurance coverage tech trade has been hit exhausting by the worldwide financial downturn, with the likes of Policygenius and Subsequent Insurance coverage all slicing again their headcount over the previous 12 months, whereas publicly-traded corporations akin to Lemonade, Hippo, and Root all buying and selling method down.
However for each yin there’s a yang, and there are indicators that the insurtech realm remains to be very a lot alive and kicking. Germany’s Wefox final 12 months raised $400 million at $4.5 billion valuation, whereas Ohio-based Department reached unicorn standing off the again of a $147 million increase. And now, it’s Superscript’s flip to remind the world that insurtech may be doing simply nice in any case.
However what separates the wheat from the chaff in insurtech — why do some float whereas others flounder?
“Insurance coverage has a extra advanced worth chain than most tech companies, in that that you must concentrate on each your acquisition technique in addition to the going efficiency of the insurance policies that you just’re promoting,” Superscript cofounder and CEO Cameron Shearer defined to robotechcompany.com. “Whereas fast-growth in buyer numbers is usually seen as a very good factor, if the underwriting is just not proper then claims — in different phrases, losses — will begin to compound additional time. Should you carry long-term liabilities, then you definitely won’t expertise the enterprise’s ‘true’ outcomes for plenty of years.”
Superscript cofounders Ben Rose (Chief Underwriting Officer) and Cameron Shearer (CEO)
Superscript’s underwriting companions embrace a slew of well-known names from the insurance coverage world, together with AXA, Beazley At Lloyd’s, RSA, and MS Amlin. And this multi-carrier strategy, spanning areas and sector-specific experience, is partly why Shearer thinks that Superscript is well-positioned to flourish because it appears to be like to scale over the long-term. It’s all about offering bespoke protection for the forms of dangers that SMEs particularly want.
“Traditionally, many buyers have mirrored the tech-investment fashions and centered on acquisition,” Shearer added. “Extra not too long ago, now with the hindsight of extra mature insurtechs and plenty of IPO experiences, we’ve seen buyers shifting focus in direction of underwriting differentiation and power. Superscript has centered on sustainable development and high quality underwriting from day one to present us extra beneficial loss ratios. Subtle underwriting, tech and information capabilities allow us to offer a extremely personalised consumer and underwriting expertise.”
From a know-how and information perspective, Superscript says it makes use of “proprietary machine studying know-how” to set itself aside, together with all through the acquisition and onboarding course of in its self-serve product which guides would-be clients towards the right channels. And massive information insights can also be a giant a part of its promise, the place it makes use of machine studying fashions to cost its dangers “extra precisely” by way of crunching a variety of knowledge factors.
“Different components of our tech appears to be like at information we’ve collected concerning the insurance coverage market to evaluate the likelihood of the place dangers are more likely to be accepted by insurers and carriers, and what information factors are key to a selected insurer’s underwriting course of,” Shearer mentioned. “This once more drives operational effectivity for each our course of and the insurers.”
The corporate had beforehand raised round $24.4 million, together with a roughly $20 million tranche raised throughout two rounds in 2020. With one other $54 million within the financial institution, the corporate mentioned that it plans to bolster its underwriting and broking capabilities, and proceed investing in its machine studying tooling.
Whereas Superscript is restricted to the European market, it has long run ambitions to turn out to be a worldwide participant. In actual fact, it already claims some purchasers in North America, Australasia, and the Center East, although apparently they’re clients who want entry to the European insurance coverage markets.
Superscript’s Sequence B spherical of funding was led by Comparethemarket proprietor BHL UK, with participation from The Hartford, and Concentric.
