CatX, a digital catastrophe and parametric risk exchange start-up, has successfully raised $2.7 million in seed funding to bring more alternative capital into the insurance sector.
This funding round marks a key milestone for the company in its mission to bridge the gap between supply and demand in the reinsurance industry, the firm stated.
The insurance sector is currently facing a critical challenge due to a shortage in reinsurance capital, which is needed to protect insurers from major losses.
“This has led to substantial price increases, especially for risks like natural catastrophes and cyber threats. In some cases, this has forced insurers to limit their coverage or completely stop writing business such as hurricane insurance in Florida,” CatX explained.
Adding: “[The company’s] innovative solution to this problem is to introduce more alternative capital to the market. They do this by offering high-return investment opportunities to institutional investors and providing them with the tools they need to understand insurance risks.”
CatX is already working with more than 15 leading institutional investors, including North American pension funds, hedge funds and structured credit funds offering insurance companies the opportunity to access billions in capital through the platform.
Back in June, the young company was accepted into the Y Combinator tech and venture accelerator program, help it build out its capabilities and scale the development of its business model.
Benedict Altier, co-founder and CEO of CatX, said: “Our goal is to help make the insurance industry more robust and adaptable in the face of increasing global challenges. In an era where the frequency and intensity of catastrophes are on the rise, the need for adequate capital to safeguard against these risks has never been more important.
“By channelling alternative capital into insurance, we’re not only helping to close the growing protection gap but also unlocking a promising new asset class for investors that is uncorrelated to traditional investments like stocks and bonds.”
A key focus for CatX is to make the whole investment process as simple as possible by digitising the workflow and utilising AI tools to shorten contract negotiations, co-founder and CTO Lucas Schneider highlighted.
The platform aims to provide all the tools necessary for investors to understand and invest in insurance risk, featuring advanced risk models to generate actionable investment insights.
Backing the company’s most recent funding round include top Silicon Valley venture capital firms and angel investors from leading proprietary trading firms and hedge funds.
Sanford Lincoln from HackLegacy, a premier VC fund who invested in the round,commented: “CatX offers a new model for the modern insurance market by opening access to investors outside of traditional reinsurance players and streamlining transactions with standardised paper and state of the art insights.
“CatX will help greatly expand reinsurance transaction volume to create a more liquid risk market to ultimately reduce costs and expand coverage opportunities for consumers across the world.”
