Digital Lloyd’s Syndicate Ki to Provide Howden with Follow Capacity

Fully-digital Lloyd’s of London syndicate Ki and global insurance broker Howden announced a partnership in which Ki is committing to provide substantial follow capacity for Howden’s clients and business partners over three years.

Ki was created in collaboration with Brit Ltd. as a “follow-only” syndicate and is the first fully digital and algorithmically driven Lloyd’s syndicate. Ki aims to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes brokers to place their follow capacity.

Ki’s algorithm, developed with support from University College London, evaluates Lloyd’s policies and automatically quotes for business through a digital platform built by Google Cloud that can be accessed directly by brokers.

Ki is planning on writing a broad range of specialty business following selected leaders in the Lloyd’s market, including Brit.

As part of the latest partnership, Ki, Howden and Hyperion X, Hyperion’s insurtech platform, will develop a fully-digital end-to-end Lloyd’s placement process during 2021.

“We believe digital models have major advantages for Lloyd’s and unlock substantial opportunities for the market in the future,” said Mark Allan, CEO of Ki.

Barnaby Rugge-Price, executive chair of Hyperion X and chair of Howden Broking Group, said Hyperion X’s data, technology and automation are keys to the delivery of transaction efficiency. “This partnership is just the start of a significant long-term relationship between Howden and Ki, we look forward to collaborating, growing together and driving innovation across the market” he vowed.

Ki recently raised US$500m of capital Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

In July, Ki named Dan Hearsum as managing director, reporting to CEO Allan. Hearsum joined Ki from Marsh JLT Specialty with more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry