Reinsurance start-up Kettle led by ex-Argo secures $4.71m in seed funding

Reinsurance start-up Kettle has raised $4.71 million funding led by True Ventures, with participation from Acrew Capital, Homebrew Ventures, Anthemis, and Inspired Capital.

The insurtech seeks to reshape the $300 billion-a-year reinsurance industry using deep learning technology and proprietary algorithms to better protect people from the growing risks associated with climate change.

The start-up's first product is focused on California wildfires, which have grown rampant over the past five years.

Kettle is founded by Andrew Engler and Nathaniel Manning. Engler was most recently the vice president of digital at reinsurer Argo Group. Manning has served as the CEO of Ushahidi, an open source software platform for community crisis response, and as the first chief data officer of USAID.

"Reinsurance is the last stop against climate change," said Engler. "It's the safety net below the safety net. It is a moral imperative that we improve this industry to protect people from the increasing disasters caused by climate change.

Manning added: "I've spent years building software to enable people to get help in the aftermath of a crisis. But I noticed it was the insurance companies who were providing the financial safety nets to help these communities rebuild. That's why we founded Kettle, to make an impact.

"In 2020, all of us across the world understand that catastrophic risks are possible and likely — and have detrimental effects. Kettle is about marrying the powers of human cooperation with machine intelligence to better protect people and society from these catastrophes."

Adam D'Augelli, partner at True Ventures, commented: "We like to invest in companies that use technology to improve the world. Reinsurance for climate-related events is an increasingly vital part of the insurance market and will continue to be. We're thrilled to support mission-driven founders like Andrew (Engler) and Nathaniel (Manning) who are using software to tackle big and important problems."