(Bloomberg) — An investor group led by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge is backing Accelerant in a transaction that values the insurance-technology startup at $2.2 billion.
Accelerant raised about $193 million in equity funding from the group, which also includes Deer Park, Marshall Wace, MS&AD Ventures and existing investor Altamont Capital Partners, Accelerant Chief Executive Officer Jeff Radke said in an interview.
The Atlanta-based company will use proceeds to fund required regulatory capital and fuel continued growth of the business, Radke said. Accelerant’s gross written premium roughly doubled to more than $500 million last year, and the startup now provides insurance to more than 300,000 small and medium-size businesses, he said.
“Managing general underwriters often complain that the market lacks transparency, there is little shared risk and that the industry at large is digitally challenged,” Radke said.
Accelerant, founded in 2018, seeks to remove complexity through its data-driven risk exchange, he said.
“Accelerant’s team understands the challenges that managing general underwriters and program administrators have had with conventional carriers, and they’ve built an offering to suit those niche needs,” Boehly, who is chairman and CEO of Greenwich, Connecticut-based Eldridge, and is joining Accelerant’s board, said in an emailed statement. “With cutting-edge data and analytic capabilities, Accelerant strips away the bureaucracy that’s endemic in the industry to offer a product that prioritizes velocity and drives deep collaboration.”
The company has grown in part by making acquisitions. Last year, it purchased Agribusiness Risk Underwriters, which specializes in poultry-farm insurance-product development, underwriting and loss control. Accelerant also acquired Kinnell Holdings Ltd. and its six subsidiaries to bolster its U.K. operations.
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