Unlocking superior reinsurance

The biggest friction that the reinsurance industry faces is the lack of quality, consistent data, according to Jerad Leigh, co-founder and chief executive officer of Supercede, speaking of transforming the reinsurance sector through technology to enhance data quality and streamline processes.

Leigh’s career started in reinsurance, then moved into technology with TigerRisk before he launched Supercede in 2019 with Ben Rose, co-founder and president, whose own reinsurance journey began at Lloyd’s of London, training as a treaty underwriter, then eventually leading Aon’s UK insurtech division before launching Supercede.

The company has now closed its Series A funding, securing $15 million, and is clearly in full forward momentum.

“We finished last year having grown 500 percent and with many new and impressive clients joining this Supercede journey,” Rose explained.

Supercede’s primary mission is to leverage data to benefit cedants, brokers and reinsurers.

Leigh detailed: “It was very important for us as practitioners to build reinsurance software designed to sit between all three of these parties to allow data to improve, in terms of quality and in its ability to be shared among parties.”

“It allows a central source of truth for all parties to reconcile.” Jerad Leigh

A twofold offering

Supercede has developed two tools: the first, Packs, focuses on data preparation, allowing clients to organise, cleanse, and structure reinsurance submission data quickly.

The second tool, Deals, facilitates the building of reinsurance deals, tracking progress and managing the process from start to binding.

Leigh summarised: “It allows a central source of truth for all parties to reconcile and then transmit that data to whichever systems are needed between parties.”

Monte Carlo is a significant event for Supercede, providing a unique opportunity to engage with industry leaders and create insightful content.

Rose explained: “We’re recording special episodes of The Reinsurance Podcast at Monte Carlo with special industry luminaries, aboard the Supercede yacht.

“These podcasts are one of the ways we engage with the sector and discuss what a data-driven future of the reinsurance industry might look like.”

Leigh added: “Monte Carlo is an amazing place for us to cement and reinforce our positioning for all three parties in the value chain.”

Reflecting on the company’s evolution, Rose described its foundation: “This is a company born from frustration and real experience working in the reinsurance market.”

“We want to provide a framework as standard for clients.” Ben Rose

Forming partnerships

Supercede aims to address the industry’s move to digitisation by creating an online focal point for reinsurance.

“Very early on we recognised multiple areas where it didn’t make sense to be doing things manually any more,” Rose observed.

“Initially, we worked very closely with the Under 35s Reinsurance Group in London, the US Under 40s Reinsurance Group and the same in Bermuda, to understand exactly what the industry wanted.

“We are very much in partnership with the industry to build reinsurance technology and we’re making reinsurance deal-making far faster, easier and simpler, while embracing all the complexities that make it reinsurance,” he continued.

“We want to provide a framework as standard for clients around the industry to harmonise their data, so that clients can use the tools on our platform to make messy, inconsistent datasets coherent and translatable.”

Highlighting Supercede’s client-centric approach, Leigh said: “Our recognition that there are three parties involved in every transaction is central to how we think about the product.

“You have to consider the impact of the product when it touches all the other parties involved.”

Sector-wide challenges

One of the biggest challenges for re/insurance at the moment is climate change. Rose noted the potential impact of a severe hurricane season, saying: “If we have a seriously bad hurricane year, poor performance in all classes can’t be disguised by lots of unencumbered premiums from nat cat, and suddenly prices are going to go up from a limited number of suppliers.”

Looking forward, Supercede’s strategy remains focused on enhancing its products and expanding globally.

“The strategy is to keep our heads down and keep on working towards making it easier to buy, broker, and underwrite reinsurance,” Rose said. 

Leigh echoed this sentiment, emphasising the importance of client feedback in Supercede’s development process. “Our focus is very much on accelerating the development of the product in line with what our customers are asking us for,” he concluded. 

Ben Rose is co-founder and president of Supercede. He can be contacted at: ben@supercede.com 

Jerad Leigh is co-founder and chief executive officer of Supercede. He can be contacted at: jerad@supercede.com 

For more news from the Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) click here.

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