By James Thaler

Feb 11 - Elixir Insurance Services is preparing to launch its cyber platform as the first step in a multi-line portfolio, its CUO has detailed.

Caroline Thompson, who joined Elixir from Cowbell in September, detailed Elixir’s multi-line strategy in an interview with The Insurer TV at this week’s NetDiligence Cyber Risk Summit in Miami Beach.

Despite soft conditions in cyber, Thompson said that Elixir will pursue “scalable growth”.

“I think we're putting together a budget premium that makes sense, and I'm excited to build a book of business that will be profitable,” she continued, adding that she isn’t “scared” of growing a new venture in a soft market.

Recent data from Marsh shows that cyber pricing globally declined by 7 percent in the fourth quarter, and was down by 5 percent in the US.

“I understand that you have to differentiate yourself in front of a broker, and they really want you to be able to write a lot of different risks, but I am not afraid of it,” she explained.

“And I think you also need to be here in order to be ready for the hardening of the marketplace. And so, we’ve seen a lot of the players even change and start scaling over the past six months to a year,” she commented.

“So, it's really exciting for them, and I think that shows for us that there's an opportunity there,” Thompson concluded.

Elixir plans to use a dual distribution model while writing on surplus lines paper, with an API that is integrated with trading partners.

Thompson said that Elixir has purchased a policy administration system, but also leverages proprietary technology in the form of “an underwriting machine”.

“That's an application that's in-house, and maybe one day down the road, we'll be able to even sell it as SaaS."

Elixir was founded by former Vantage, Allstate, and AIG executive Farhan Shah in January 2024, with the new venture leaning heavily on consultants that the MGA plans to bring in-house.

“Pretty ready” for initial launch in cyber

Thompson said Elixir is “pretty ready” ahead of launching its first program, and that she plans to begin hiring distribution talent sometime in the first quarter.

“It's pretty exciting to get that up and running, and then once we have that capacity, we can make a lot of these consultants full-time participants in all of this,” she explained.

Thompson said the appeal for carriers looking to partner with Elixir in providing capacity is that the MGA plans to write a diversified portfolio, in addition to bringing “precision and predictability in knowing what's going to be profitable”.

In cyber specifically, Thompson shared that broking trading partners often feel “overwhelmed” by the number of vulnerabilities insurtech and incumbent carrier peers flag to them.

“Building this new MGA, I said, 'Okay, I'm going to put something together that creates a product that's a little more precise and gives results that really make sense. So, if I'm going to offer a quote with subjectivities, does that subjectivity really make sense?” she commented.

“And so, that's what we're going to bring to the table. There are so many interesting MGAs popping up. They have all these different appetites, and I'm really excited to see, even in the soft marketplace – I think there is room for them.”

Multi-line strategy

Thompson didn’t shy away from labeling Elixir as an insurtech, highlighting the importance it is placing on using technology in the underwriting process, and Elixir is especially looking to expand into business segments where technology can effectively be leveraged.

“Other lines of business where some of the underwriting process takes way too long, there's long documents to process, or lots of different data sets out there that you have to apply, lots of different applications that you have to use,” she said of areas for expansion.

“So, how do we bring that all together within our own underwriting system and apply that to the next line of business? So, I'm excited to see what we end up with,” Thompson added.

Elixir is also looking at the potential of offering a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product to carrier partners.

“It would be AI as a use-case tool within a carrier, because you're seeing a lot of carriers use lots of different SaaS tools and parts of their process to create efficiency,” she explained.

“And I do see a couple that are using it within the underwriting-specific realm as well. Some are using it just for the speed of the process.”

She also said that Elixir currently has no plans to offer a security product alongside the provision of insurance, such as managed detection and response $(MDR.AU)$.

Elixir’s initial appetite will be focused on SME insureds with $250mn in revenues and below, but Thompson said that its technology is well-suited to more complex risks and that the MGA would eventually look to go upmarket to customers with revenues in excess of $1bn.

Thompson said Elixir is currently talking to a range of carriers, including some that currently offer cyber, others that lack a US presence, along with fronting and program carriers that don’t currently have a cyber product, with an ambition to launch by June or July.

Immediate product expansion beyond cyber is likely to focus on the ancillary management and professional liability lines, like E&O and miscellaneous professional liability.

“But I think we also want to be super innovative. There's a lot of different specialty lines, even outside of the casualty specialty world, there's property and even personal lines that are really interesting to us,” Thompson commented.

“So, I can't say exactly what line, but we're working on honing in on what's next,” she added, while saying that she plans to bring aboard more talent as the cyber product gets closer to launch.

“All powered by Gen AI”

Shah has provided the venture’s initial funding, alongside some other unnamed investors, and that Elixir has held preliminary talks about seed round funding.

Thompson said the focus of her time at the NetDiligence event this week is on meeting with carriers to learn more about their appetite as well as getting in front of brokers.

“So, just making sure I'm keeping all of my relationships open,” she explained.

Thompson said that Elixir will be “all powered by GenAI” and that the business has “really honed in on that underwriting part of the process” and brought many different data sources together.

The goal is to pair that data with GenAI to filter it for underwriters so that they can make more precise decisions and better decisions to write profitable business in the end.

“It brings precision, speed, and then overall profitability of the book because you're able to hone in on what risks we really want to write versus others and detect a lot better,” Thompson said of AI.

“I think you've seen a lot of insurtechs in the past leverage AI in a way that put risk on a different track,” she commented.

“But this really brings another layer to it, because we're working with an AI agent to really converse and say, 'Oh, can I double-click on this little part of the risk and understand it a bit more?'”

“So, it dives a lot deeper and what we're seeing, as we're working on our capacity for cyber - we're seeing is a lot of potential carrier partners get excited about that because they have not seen that before,” she concluded.