Delos Insurance Solutions, a catastrophe insurance managing general agency (MGA) with a focus on California wildfire risks, has successfully closed a $5.3 million seed funding round led by IA Capital, with participation from Avanta Ventures, Red Dog Capital, and Futureland Syndicate.
Delos underwrites as an MGA using capacity from Canopius and is currently focused on the California homeowners insurance market, which remains challenged from widespread and escalating wildfire damage.
The firm leverages cutting-edge technology to offer insurance to homeowners in communities “abandoned by other insurers because of wildfire risk”.
While currently the firm is focused on California, its underwriting tech is applicable to wildfire risk in other states and can also be adapted to other loss scenarios, says the firm.
The completion of the seed funding round enables Delos to further expand within the California homeowners insurance market.
Kevin Stein, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delos, commented: “I am very pleased that our investors have shown such strong confidence in Delos and our technology.
“With this round of financing, Delos can go much further in achieving its dual mission of making reasonably priced insurance available to California homeowners while providing insurers and reinsurers a reliable stream of profitable revenue.”
Delos explains that its underwriting model quantifies wildfire risk under a broad range of actual and hypothetical scenarios. By using satellite images and other data sources, the MGA’s proprietary machine learning algorithms identify and quantify relationships among numerous factors, including vegetation condition, ignition sources, weather, terrain, and loss mitigation measures.
By combining machine learning technology, data, and catastrophe and climate modelling expertise, Delos says that it’s able to produce more dependable data-driven underwriting, pricing, and portfolio management decisions.
Matt Perlman, Partner at IA Capital, said: “We are impressed by the robust science behind Delos’ innovative wildfire underwriting model. Delos has developed a creative and viable solution to the persistent problem of insuring homes in areas under threat of wildfire. We are pleased to support them as they expand in California and beyond.”
Steve Bernardez, Partner at Avanta Ventures, added: “Delos, combining their technology, insurance, and wildfire experience, is writing this coverage line profitably and their catastrophe insurance modeling shows great potential.”
