Gilad Shai

Heard of Marshmallow? No, not the kind you toast over a campfire—though this insurtech is definitely on fire. Marshmallow, a UK-based insurtech, recently scooped up $90 million in funding! Marshmallow was founded to fix unfair insurance pricing for newcomers to the UK, using proprietary tech and alternative data to offer fairer car insurance, often up to 45% cheaper, by considering driving histories from any country. The result? Over 1 million drivers insured, a $2 billion valuation, and a $500 million revenue run rate. Their ambition is to become a one-stop financial shop for migrants, expanding into home insurance, loans, and more, all tailored to the unique challenges newcomers face, serving as an excellent example to build a vertical ecosystem.  What’s the playbook for UAE Insurtechs? Go deep, not wide: focus on a specific segment- expats, SMEs, gig workers, and solve their real pain points Leverage proprietary tech: use alternative data and AI to build pricing models; an excellent example of using alternative data is the insurtech Relm Insurance! Expand vertically: once you’ve built trust with one product, layer on adjacent services that make sense Own the customer journey: control the full value chain, from onboarding to claims Marshmallow’s success shows that the real opportunity lies in specialization and relevance. By understanding the unique needs of a defined customer group and building an ecosystem around them, insurers can create lasting loyalty and defend against both legacy competitors and new digital entrants. ONE TAKEAWAY: Go for a super ecosystem (not a superapp), because in insurance, relevance is the real treat. #insurance #insurtech #innovation #relevance #uae #middleeast #uk

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We’ve recovered over $250M in claims for insurers, MGAs, and insurtechs. It starts with finding 8–12 critical gaps in every program we review. After 25+ years advising insurers, MGAs, and insurtechs, we’ve reviewed hundreds of programs. Every single one had 8–12 critical gaps. Not technicalities... gaps that would have turned into seven- or eight-figure losses. Here’s why our clients don’t get caught off guard: 1. Deep specialization in financial institutions       We’ve spent decades inside your world - seeing patterns no generalist could.       We anticipate regulatory shifts 12–18 months ahead.       And we maintain market relationships that keep coverage available when others can’t.       Example: Six months before a surprise market conduct exam, we added specific regulatory coverage that saved one carrier $850K in uncovered costs.     2. Superior policy architecture and wording       We don’t accept the 200-page generic forms most brokers place.       Instead, we deploy bespoke Lloyd’s manuscript forms - concise, purpose-built, and proven under pressure.       They close multi-million-dollar gaps before they become losses.       Example: We replaced an E&O policy that excluded underwriting - the client’s core function - with a manuscript form that erased a $4M gap.     3. Claims mastery by reverse-engineering from the loss backward       We stress-test every program with worst-case claim scenarios.       We position coverage so the insurer is prepared to pay - before a claim is ever filed.       Example: We reframed a $4.2M denial as an underwriting authority issue instead of a distribution problem - securing full payment.    Protection on paper is easy. Protection in practice is earned. - Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise? Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions: Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

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Most insurtechs get their insurance from a broker who has never attended a tech conference, never used the product, and definitely never written a check into the space. We have. At Portal, we have been quietly building out a niche specifically for insurtech companies. I've invested in them, sat on their boards, advised their teams and as of the last few years, insured them. That context matters when it comes time to structure coverage for tech E&O, cyber liability, D&O, and the niche exposures that generic brokers miss entirely. If you are building in this space, your insurance program should be structured by someone who actually understands what you are building and why it matters. More info in the comments

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Proud to share this important milestone: Verisk is the first to complete California’s new wildfire catastrophe model review process for insurance ratemaking. This breakthrough supports a more resilient insurance landscape—giving insurers the tools they need to better serve communities in fire-prone regions. A huge thank you to our team and the California Department of Insurance for helping advance this critical work. Read more: vrsk.co/4kVU0or #WildfireRisk #InsuranceResilience #CatModeling

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The biggest mistake early insurtechs make? Trying to scale before they prove they can underwrite. I saw this and more at the Lloyd’s Lab Investor Insights Forum, where VCs, CVCs, MGAs, and startups gathered to talk about what’s next in funding insurance innovation. Here are 4 takeaways that stood out: 1️⃣ Fundamentals still rule. Deep domain knowledge, disciplined underwriting, and capital efficiency continue to separate winners from hype. 2️⃣ Early-stage VC funding is tricky. Rapid scaling often clashes with the need to prove out loss ratios and underwriting performance. 3️⃣ Scale follows clarity. Once the underwriting framework is proven and demand is validated, distribution can unlock rapid expansion. 4️⃣ The market is ready. Insurtechs that boost pricing and ops efficiency are poised to improve EBITDA and that’s exactly what investors and customers want. Now is the time to build, with precision, discipline, and data at the core. What trends are you seeing in funding insurtech right now? __ ♻️ Repost to share with your network 🔔 Follow me for posts on insurtech, logistics, startups, and resilience

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🚀 Big News in InsurTech! 🚀 I’m thrilled to announce a strategic collaboration between InsurTech360 and VERITUITY. In our latest piece, "Why Verified Identity Is the Future of Insurance Payments", we lay out a clear case for why verified identity isn’t just "nice to have" - it’s the backbone of next-gen insurance payment ecosystems. Some highlights... 🔍 Trust is the new speed. The article opens with the line: "In a world increasingly powered by automation and instant payments, the question isn’t whether insurers can pay faster – it’s whether they’re paying the right person, at the right time, to the right account." 🕵️ Identity Gap = Operational Risk. Many insurers digitized workflows, but payouts remain weak: "Broker commissions misdirected … claims delayed by false positives … fraudsters exploiting weak verification layers." 🛡️ Zero-Trust Payout Verification. Verituity’s "Zero Trust Payout Verification™" framework continuously authenticates the payee across the full lifecycle - turning static verification into dynamic trust. insurtech360.com 📈 Big Impact. Clients of Verituity are seeing up to 92% improvement in payment accuracy and 85% reduction in check volume. 🌐 Why this matters. For carriers: fewer payment leakages, stronger fraud defenses, greater operational precision. For brokers: faster, more reliable commissions. For policyholders and claimants: the right funds, to the right person, with confidence. For the ecosystem: a foundational shift from “we process payments” to “we validate payments with identity.” 👀 What to watch How payouts evolve from a backend cost center to a strategic asset built around identity. New standards emerging around "continuous verification" vs. one-off checks. Real-world insurance use-cases where identity drives competitive differentiation - not just compliance. If you’re in the insurance value chain - whether carrier, broker, MGA or a technology vendor - I encourage you to read the article and ask yourself: Are my payouts as safe as they’re fast? Do I know who is receiving funds, how, and when - with verified certainty? Could identity be the differentiator that separates you from the pack? 🔗 Read the full article ➜ https://lnkd.in/gDePCqzs #InsurTech #Payments #IdentityVerification #FraudPrevention #BionicAgent #InsuranceInnovation #InsurTech360 #Verituity #TrustInPayments #DigitalTransformation

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The last episode of this season of #offscript is out now! 🎧 I loved this chat with Amy Richardson about what it actually takes to make modern claims tech work in real life. Not just launching it, but getting people comfortable and weaving it into the day job. We get into how #AI and humans can work together in a very practical way with automation picking up the repetitive admin, freeing claims handlers to do the bit only people can do... judgement, empathy, proper conversations with customers. Amy’s played a big part in our move to Synergy Cloud and I really liked her view that migration isn’t the finish line. It’s the starting point for what’s possible once the platform is embedded, plugged into the wider ecosystem, and genuinely adopted by the teams using it. If you’re interested in where claims is heading – from the inside, not the hype, have a watch or listen: 📽️ Watch now: https://lnkd.in/eWrXbHu8 🎧 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/eT58DVcd #offscript #synergycloud #digitaltransformation #claimstechnology #claimsmanagement

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Major insurers such as Great American, Chubb, and W.R. Berkley are seeking permission from U.S. regulators to exclude AI-related liabilities from corporate insurance policies. Their reason? “AI models are too much of a black box.” This is coming from an industry that has spent centuries pricing hurricanes, terrorism, pandemics, and billion-dollar fires. But they’re unsure how to price… text and code. The fear is justified. Just look at what the industry has already survived: ⚠️ Google AI’s search answer wrongly implied a solar company had legal issues → $110M lawsuit ⚠️ Air Canada was forced to honour a discount that their chatbot invented ⚠️ A company lost $25M after fraudsters used an ultra-realistic AI clone of a senior executive on a video call But these are individual incidents. That’s not why insurers are panicking. The real threat? Systemic risk. Not one giant claim but 10,000 simultaneous claims triggered by the same AI model making the same mistake at scale. From a venture and ecosystem perspective, here’s what this signals: 1. AI governance and reliability will become investable categories: think safety, stress-testing, and evaluation layers. 2. Startups using frontier models may need entirely new insurance frameworks (or price in operational risk). 3. Regulators will step in sooner than we expect. 4. The shift from ‘move fast’ to ‘move responsibly’ isn’t optional anymore. The irony is striking: AI is scaling faster than any technology in history yet the basic safety infrastructure around it hasn’t even been built. What do you think: Should insurers exclude AI-related risks, or should the industry evolve to price them accurately?

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🚀 We’re excited to launch the very first InsurTech NY Weekly News Roundup! Each week we’ll be curating the top funding, product, and partnership moves shaping insurance innovation. Here are last week’s headlines (Aug 8–14): 💰 ePayPolicy secures strategic investment from LLR Partners 💧 Previsico raises new funding from BlueOrchard Finance 📍 Pie Insurance expands workers’ comp to Connecticut 🤝 Orion180 partners with Neural Earth ⚡ Alleva launches instant insurance verification tool 💰 Beam Benefits raises $17.5M (Series E) 🤝 Embroker deepens partnership with Ascend 👉 Read the full Roundup here: https://lnkd.in/gVhjVNDw We’re excited to make this a weekly feature — helping the InsurTech community stay informed, connected, and inspired. #InsurTech #InsuranceInnovation #WeeklyRoundup #News

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We are so excited to welcome our newest members to Insurtech UK community!  CBPE   Onesurance.ai  and DHA-1, Inc CBPE is a UK-based private equity firm partnering with businesses valued up to £175m. With over 40 years’ experience and 11 funds raised, CBPE backs management teams to scale and professionalise their businesses. Its portfolio spans healthcare, technology, business services, industrials and financial services - with increasing focus on insurance and insurtech. Recent investments include DCL (haulage MGA), Horwich Farrelly (tech-enabled legal and claims solutions), and Compre (specialty reinsurance) Onesurance.ai is Europe’s leading AI platform for insurance brokers, MGAs, consolidators and carriers. We turn data into growth by predicting customer behaviour, preventing churn, unlocking cross-sell potential and automating client engagement with AI agents. Built by insurance experts and data scientists, our technology delivers higher revenue, stronger retention and full regulatory compliance - at scale. Onesurance empowers intermediaries and carriers to stay ahead in a rapidly changing market. DHA-1, Inc is a global insurance consulting and managed services firm supporting carriers, MGAs, brokers, and insurtechs across commercial lines. We combine deep domain expertise with technology-enabled delivery to streamline underwriting, policy services, claims support, and data workflows. With a platform-agnostic philosophy and focus on scalable, human-augmented solutions, we help organizations accelerate transformation, enhance efficiency, and expand confidently across global markets. #insurtech #tech #AI #innovation #insurance

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85% of healthcare insurtechs are spending $2.5 million just to stay on the right side of the law. The number hits you harder when you see what it looks like in practice. Just yesterday, I asked someone on a call, “Has your admin updated the latest compliance protocol under the Bima Trinity?” The silence on the line said enough. Across continents, the story never really changes: One small oversight with 𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐀𝐀 in the US, a new twist in 𝐈𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐈'𝐬 "Policyholder-First" Era in India, or a sudden shift in 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 across Africa—and now you’re bracing for audits, penalties, or even lost partnerships. It only takes one new regulation for a workflow to collapse. One missed update, and you’re buried in paperwork you thought you’d already done. One global policy change, and suddenly, teams everywhere are translating dense legalese into daily processes. But the pain isn’t just on the balance sheet. It’s the feeling that you’re never truly caught up. That every day, perfection is mandatory. That constant vigilance is simply part of the job. No two days look the same for those #OnDuty. Miss a detail, and you pay a fine. Miss a trend, and credibility slips. Miss a beat, and your business risks falling behind. Manual processes just can’t keep pace. If you’re in this industry, you feel the 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭 too. It’s in late nights, restless minds, and the weight of knowing the next regulation is always lurking. And some nights, when the inbox is quiet but the mind isn’t, I find myself returning to a single question: How do we build a system that adapts and evolves, that truly lifts this burden for the people I talk to every week? That question has shaped everything I do. Because at its core, 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞. Not about sleepless nights, endless paperwork, or scrambling to keep up with change. If you’re wrestling with the same admin chaos and want to see what a better way looks like, let’s talk about the Vitraya way. #Insurtech #Healthcare #Compliance #AdminPainPoints #WhosOnDuty

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AI can automate underwriting workflows and process submissions in real time. But it can't knock on doors with a box of donuts. Aman Gour, co-founder of FurtherAI, had no background in insurance when he started. No network. No warm leads. So he drove around the Bay Area with pastries, asking insurance agents what AI could solve for them. Two years later, FurtherAI is one of the leading AI companies in insurance—automating workflows for underwriters and claims adjusters across the industry. Teams are doubling productivity, improving submission-to-quote ratios by 15%, and reaching 95%+ accuracy in policy comparisons. But Aman still does 70 customer conversations a week. Personally. AI has changed what you can build, but it hasn't changed how founders need to show up: ➡️ Door-knocking for insights — No domain expertise? Drive to your customers and ask what they need ➡️ Being present in every conversation — "A lot of people have a lot to share if you're listening," Aman says ➡️ Talking to end users early — FurtherAI began working with early customers during the product’s initial build phase—ensuring real-world alignment from day one. At Rippling, we see this across our early-stage customers: AI changes the product, but the best founders still roll up their sleeves and do the unglamorous work of truly understanding their customers. Watch Aman explain how he door-knocked his way to product-market fit 👇 P.S. Big congratulations to the FurtherAI team on their Series A. If you’re looking for a vertical AI company in insurance with a great team and real momentum, join them!

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