Pie Insurance, a growing insurtech company that specialises in workers’ comp insurance for small businesses, has achieved a first-step in its ambition to become a full-stack insurtech, by acquiring a carrier from legacy player Premia Holdings Ltd.
Pie announced today that its Pie Carrier Holdings entity has now received regulatory approval from the Illinois Department of Insurance to acquire carrier Western Select Insurance Company.
Western Select is a property casualty insurance carrier that is licensed in Illinois, California, and New York.
The acquisition has been made from a subsidiary of Premia Holdings Ltd., the Bermuda-based property & casualty re/insurance run-off group.
Premia acquired the direct liabilities of Western Select in that deal, aside from some that were kept in rehabilitation.
Pie Insurance’s acquisition of the carrier appears to have been with a clean slate, as legacy specialist Premia has likely retained the acquired liabilities to manage them through run-off.
Giving Pie Insurance a ready to go carrier entity through which to build its own balance-sheet and expand its insurtech business strategy with a full-stack, instead of relying on other carriers for underwriting paper.
Pie Carrier Holdings was established with backing from private equity specialist investor Gallatin Point Capital to create and purchase licensed insurance companies.
Pie Carrier Holdings will own the licensed insurance companies and Pie will use them to issue a portion of its insurance policies.
Western Select appears to be the first, giving Pie licensed access to a number of key states insurance market’s.
Once this transaction to acquire the carrier is completed, Western Select Insurance Company will be renamed Pie Casualty Insurance Company.
“Since Pie was founded in 2017, our goal has been to offer the entire small business insurance experience to our customers as a full stack insurance carrier,” explained John Swigart, co-founder and CEO of Pie. “Receiving regulatory approval to acquire Western Select Insurance Company is a key milestone on the path for Pie to write our own policies, and to bring our seamless commercial insurance experience to even more small businesses across the country.”
Pie is also backed by specialist re/insurer SiriusPoint and Allianz X, the tech investing division of global insurer Allianz.
