InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant & Robin Merttens

Introduction:  

Growth equity can open the door to the next stage of an MGA’s growth. But the bigger question is how that capital can be used to strengthen underwriting, accelerate technology and build a delegated business that can compete at greater scale. 

Joining Robin Merttens on the podcast, Rebecca Ince, Chief Operating Officer at Carbon Underwriting, and Mark Oldroyd, Chief Technology Officer at Carbon Underwriting, explain what comes next following Carbon’s growth equity investment from FTV Capital. 

Rebecca explains why finding the right investment partner was about more than funding. With Carbon growing from £150 million of premium in 2023 to £450 million this year, its next phase requires greater investment in technology alongside ambitions to expand further into the US. FTV’s experience across financial technology and US insurance made both areas important factors in the decision. 

The discussion explores how that investment could accelerate Carbon’s technology strategy, particularly its proprietary Graphene analytics platform. Mark explains why centralised, structured data provides a strong foundation for AI and where the technology is already creating practical value, including claims matching. He also argues that MGAs need to distinguish between technology they should build themselves and capabilities they can buy, while protecting the underwriting expertise, workflows and intellectual property that differentiate them. 

They also discuss why bordereaux are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, despite widespread appetite for richer and more frequent data exchange. Rather than waiting for the entire ecosystem to change, Mark explains why the opportunity is to remove friction from collecting and standardising data, allowing insurers to focus more attention on the insights and decisions that come from it. 

Looking ahead, Rebecca explains why Carbon plans to remain focused on delegated underwriting while expanding into new classes and geographies, particularly the US. They also explore how analytics can help identify rate-adequate opportunities as conditions soften and what it takes to protect culture as a business rapidly scales beyond 100 people. 

In this episode you’ll learn: 

Why Carbon chose growth equity and what it looked for beyond capital when selecting an investment partner 

How centralised, structured data creates a stronger foundation for applying AI across underwriting and claims 

Where AI is already delivering practical value within Carbon’s insurance workflows 

How MGAs can decide which technology capabilities to build and which to buy 

Why proprietary underwriting expertise, workflows and data are becoming increasingly important sources of differentiation 

Why bordereaux are unlikely to disappear from delegated underwriting in the next three to five years 

What is preventing carriers and MGAs from exchanging richer, more frequent data 

Why Carbon sees the US as its next major growth opportunity 

How analytics can help underwriters find rate-adequate business as market conditions soften 

What rapidly growing MGAs can do to protect their culture as they scale 

Hear more from Carbon at The Golden Age of MGAs 

Carbon is sponsoring InsTech’s upcoming The Golden Age of MGAs? Building to win in any market cycle event on 24 September. Rebecca will moderate the Capital diversification and the resilient MGA panel, joined by Carbon Co-Founder and Managing Director Ben Laidlaw, CFC Underwriting’s Philippa Berry and Gallagher Re’s Jane Fenton. They’ll explore practical approaches to multi-carrier strategies, long-term capacity agreements, fronting, reinsurance access and patient capital structures that can withstand a full market cycle. 

Find out more and register here.

Career opportunities at Carbon 

Carbon is continuing to grow its team and is looking for people interested in helping shape the future of delegated underwriting across underwriting, technology, data and operations. 

View current opportunities at Carbon.

 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

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Introduction 

AI is reshaping insurance, but successful transformation isn't just about adopting the latest technology. It's about designing tools that people actually want to use. 

In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Dani Katz, Co-founder and Director of Optalitix, to explore why the future of pricing lies in bringing underwriters and actuaries closer together rather than forcing them into the same way of working. 

Drawing on recent industry research and practical experience supporting insurers and reinsurers, Dani explains why human-centred design is becoming just as important as technical innovation. From the enduring role of Excel to the rise of natural language AI, the conversation explores how technology can remove repetitive work while giving insurance professionals more time to focus on judgement, strategy and commercial decision-making. 

You'll also hear why Dani believes AI will create new opportunities across the insurance market rather than replace the next generation of talent. 

In this episode you'll learn: 

Why successful pricing transformation depends on people as much as technology 

How AI can simplify underwriting without becoming a 'black box' 

Why actuaries and underwriters need different tools and different user experiences 

What insurers can learn from the continued popularity of Excel 

How modern pricing platforms are helping bridge the gap between actuarial models and underwriting workflows 

Why removing manual data preparation could unlock more strategic work for actuaries 

What the future of the London Market could look like as AI and automation become mainstream 

Why expanding insurance coverage, not reducing headcount, could be AI's biggest impact on the industry 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Introduction 

Insurance has never been short of technology promises. From Blueprint 2 to successive waves of digital transformation, the ambition has often outpaced the results. According to Elizabeth Wooliston, that's beginning to change. 

Joining Robin Merttens on the podcast, Elizabeth draws on more than 30 years in the London Market to explain why the current wave of intelligent automation feels fundamentally different. It's not simply that AI has become more capable. Market conditions have shifted, brokers have embedded digital strategies into their operating models and carriers are under increasing pressure to respond to risks faster without compromising underwriting quality. 

The discussion explores where automation is delivering value today, from follow markets and facilities to the far more complex challenge of open market placements and policy servicing. Elizabeth also explains why organisations should think beyond AI itself, arguing that success depends on structured data, specialist insurance knowledge and governance rather than simply adopting the latest large language model. 

They also discuss how attitudes towards technology are changing across the market. Instead of replacing underwriters, intelligent automation is increasingly being viewed as a way of removing repetitive administration, allowing experienced professionals to spend more time applying judgement, developing client relationships and mentoring the next generation of talent. 

In this episode you'll learn: 

Why Elizabeth believes the London Market has reached a genuine inflection point for technology adoption 

How brokers and carriers are creating new momentum for digital risk placement 

Where intelligent automation is already improving underwriting workflows 

Why open market placements represent the next major challenge for AI 

The trade-offs insurers should consider when deciding whether to build or buy AI capabilities 

What organisations need in place before agentic AI can be deployed successfully 

Why governance and insurance-specific expertise are becoming competitive advantages 

How changing expectations across the workforce are influencing technology adoption 

What Artificial's recent expansion says about the growing demand for intelligent insurance infrastructure 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

For decades, catastrophe modelling has largely been about choosing the best view of risk. But what happens when no single model can capture the full picture? 

In this episode, Matthew Grant speaks with Rob Newbold, President of Catastrophe and Risk Solutions at Verisk, about why the future of catastrophe modelling is becoming more open, collaborative and accessible. 

Rob explains the thinking behind Verisk's new Model Exchange platform and why enabling insurers to access third-party models alongside Verisk's own is less about changing strategy and more about continuing a long-standing commitment to giving clients greater choice. The conversation explores how broader access to catastrophe and cyber models could help organisations build a more complete understanding of risk while making advanced analytics available to a much wider audience. 

They also discuss why the global protection gap remains stubbornly difficult to close, why parametric insurance has not yet delivered on many of its early promises and where new modelling capability is still urgently needed, from flood to wildfire. 

Looking ahead, Rob shares his perspective on how agentic AI could fundamentally change catastrophe modelling workflows, allowing insurers to automate scenario analysis, respond more quickly to emerging events and make sophisticated risk analytics available without requiring specialist modelling expertise. 

In this episode you'll learn: 

Why Verisk has opened its platform to third-party catastrophe and cyber models 

How Model Exchange helps insurers build a more comprehensive view of global risk 

Why collaboration between model providers could strengthen resilience across the industry 

Where the biggest gaps remain in catastrophe modelling, including flood and emerging risks 

Why the protection gap remains a persistent challenge despite better analytics 

The reality of parametric insurance and why basis risk continues to limit wider adoption 

How cloud platforms and SaaS delivery are making catastrophe models accessible beyond specialist insurance teams 

What practical applications of agentic AI could look like for catastrophe modelling over the next 12 months 

Why openness, transparency and competition may ultimately improve risk understanding across the market 

Rob's recommendations: 

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell 

Smart Brevity by Roy Schwartz, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. 

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

Innovation in insurance is no longer just about creating entirely new products. Increasingly, the biggest opportunities lie in rethinking how existing products are underwritten, distributed and delivered. 

In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Tom Graham, Head of Partnerships and Innovation at Chaucer, and Iryna Chekanava, Senior Innovation Underwriter, to explore how insurers can innovate without losing sight of the fundamentals. They discuss why technology alone is no longer a competitive advantage, what separates successful innovation partners from the rest and why deep customer understanding still matters more than the latest AI tool. 

The conversation also looks at the changing role of underwriting, the rise of smarter follow models, why closing the protection gap remains such a difficult challenge and how innovation teams can work alongside traditional underwriting rather than in isolation. 

Whether you're building an MGA, investing in insurtech or leading innovation inside an insurer, this episode offers practical insight into what insurers are really looking for and where the next wave of opportunity is emerging.  

What you'll learn: 

Why the next phase of insurance innovation is focused on improving existing products rather than inventing entirely new ones  

Why technology and AI are becoming table stakes rather than lasting competitive advantages  

The qualities insurers value most when assessing new innovation partners  

How insurers balance experimentation with disciplined underwriting  

Why customer understanding and distribution remain stronger differentiators than software alone  

What smarter follow models could mean for the future of the London market  

Why the insurance industry's biggest protection gaps remain difficult to close despite technological progress  

How embedding innovation teams within underwriting creates better long-term outcomes than running separate innovation functions 

Who should listen? 
This episode is particularly valuable for: 

Insurance innovation leaders looking to understand where carriers are investing beyond AI hype  

Chief Underwriting Officers and underwriting managers exploring how innovation can improve underwriting performance without compromising discipline  

MGA founders and leadership teams seeking insight into what insurers look for in long-term capacity partnerships  

Insurtech founders and product leaders building solutions for the insurance market and wanting to understand what differentiates successful propositions

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.