Risk trading insurtech AkinovA unveils Series B investment round to fuel expansion

AkinovA, an electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of re/insurance risks, has launched a Series B investment round to fuel its expansion plans.

The insurtech has also added Israel-based venture capital fund FinTLV to its list of investors.

The new round of funding will help the insurtech unlock growth in the insurance, reinsurance and ILS markets for cyber and property catastrophe risk trading.

Earlier in January, specialist reinsurer Hiscox Re and Japanese insurance group MS&AD invested in the start-up, and assisted in the development of AkinovA's trading platform ahead of its launch by, collaborating with active participants in the re/insurance value chain.

AkinovA is the first company to have received insurance regulatory sandbox licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), enabling it to carry out business using its electronic trading platform under the BMA's new regulatory sandbox regime, which came into effect in July 2018.

AkinovA said its Series A investment round was over-subscribed and attracted a broad range of expertise from a strong mix of industry and non-industry participants.

The AkinovA Marketplace is designed to offer cedents, brokers and capacity providers (from both insurance and capital markets) a digitally native environment to rapidly transfer cyber risks, as well as deliver further efficiencies to trading Natural and Property Catastrophe risks.

“As one of AkinovA’s Series A investors, we were struck by the fact that AkinovA is relatively unique in the fintech and insurtech world: their fundamental proposition is to unlock growth, not just efficiency and cost reduction alone,” said Gil Arazi, co-founder and managing partner of FinTLV.

“We recognised that, over time, AkinovA’s platform will be able to be used across multiple lines of business beyond cyber risk transfer. As an Israel-based venture capitalist with a strong network in the insurance sector, FinTLV also benefits from proximity to our country’s leading and thriving cyber security-related industry. We look forward to bringing our deep FinTech, C-level insurance operational experience and access to our cyber security cluster to accelerate AkinovA’s growth,” Arazi added.

Henri Winand, chief executive officer of AkinovA, said: “We are delighted to count Gil and the FinTLV team as one of our investors. They bring much more than money with their network - insurance C‑level operational experience and a proactive approach.”

Winand added: “As we are ramping up AkinovA’s commercial operations, it was natural to launch a Series B investment round. Of course, we are focused on unlocking cyber risk and ILS industry growth. However, we have been asked by selected brokers and, more broadly, other market participants to assist in bringing efficiencies to the existing property and natural catastrophe risk transfer market.

“AkinovA’s very competitive pricing, independence, regulatory approval for insurance, reinsurance, property, natural catastrophe and cyber risks - combined with our integrated marketplace offering which includes price discovery, clearing, deal repository and platform communication tools - make it a really attractive proposition.”

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