AkinovA’s Winand: Diversifying data sets key to attracting more capital

The solution to attracting more capital and liquidity to underwrite emerging risks such as cyber is to ensure “several sources” of information are made available to enable informed decision-making, according to AkinovA’s CEO and co-founder Henri Winand.

Speaking to The Insurer TV, Winand outlined that to underwrite risks such as cyber and intellectual property “at the pace at which we should do”, it is critical that the industry creates “an ecosystem of different sets of information” for each risk.

Improved data sets will allow capital providers to be more certain about the risk or assess whether there is an opportunity to “play the contrarian view” in areas where data sets vary.

Winand’s comments come after AkinovA opened up its digital reinsurance marketplace to help insurance start-ups, scale-ups and emerging innovators source investment.

This development was part of AkinovA’s goal to “breathe life” into the insurtech market to ensure “they have the right working capital” and the “right underwriting capital” to grow.

Indeed, Winand suggested the “fundamental” element of its marketplace was to ensure all parties could gain economic value and grow as a whole, rather than “argue about the slices already there”.

The CEO underlined that now was the time for ventures that had been able to survive recent tumultuous conditions to “come out and help the industry to grow and transform”.

In fact, Winand was bullish that the perceived “crisis” in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse does not provide a “huge amount of turmoil” but rather “uncertainty.”

Winand argued: “Uncertainty offers opportunities for those who are able to actually take a contrarian view to the market, then come into new insurtechs and say that this is actually the right time to invest. I think, on balance, I would view it more as an exciting time.”

ESG transition an “exciting” opportunity

One of the more exciting opportunities noted by Winand was the formation of “infrastructure and insurance balance sheets” to underwrite more assets associated with the climate and energy transition.

In the formation of these balance sheets, Winand underlined the need to have a “unique set of capabilities and technologies” to gain a “real understanding of what is going on”.

Winand suggested AkinovA’s recent partnerships with the Climate Forecast Applications Network and CyberCube added to its ability “to get down to a set of granular data”, which allowed it to model more accurately.

The CEO concluded: “Data is the lifeblood actuaries need to convert into a model that gives the underwriter the confidence that whilst they will have to pay claims, they will also make a return for their shareholders.”

Watch the 15-minute video interview with AkinovA’s Henri Winand to hear more on: