Recently, cyber insurance company Converge Insurance raised $15M Series A from Forgepoint Capital to address the growing pain points impacting both cyber insurance providers and insurees.
In short, Converge is making cyber insurance more accessible, affordable and effective by ditching the outside-in scans and applications that fail to address all relevant security risks. Instead, they weave together underwriting, security, and technology to deliver transparent policies and critical risk management capabilities. They cater to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) – who make up 99% of all U.S. businesses, empowering them to manage cyber and technology risks more intelligently so they can best serve their customers.
We sat down with Tom Kang, CEO at Converge Insurance, to discuss how the company plans to grow in the market and what sets the company apart from other cyber insurance providers.
Can you tell us more about Converge Insurance's recent Series A funding of $15 million from Forgepoint Capital and how it will be utilized to address the critical need for cyber insurance and protection for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)?
The focus is getting to the next stage of growth. As was announced last week, we have secured insurance capacity from a highly rated global insurance carrier, QBE North America, which allows us to enter the insurance market and provide a differentiated underwriting solution.
The new funding will be used to accelerate expansion of our industry-leading underwriting platform, which will help us service and underwrite customers at scale. We’re using data and our proprietary model to make it easier for SMB businesses to qualify for cyber insurance quickly and transparently. The funding will also allow us to invest in services that can help mitigate our customers’ cyber risks and improve their security posture.
Finally, and most importantly, it allows us to invest in our people across technology, security and insurance. Insurance is ultimately a people business augmented by data and technology. We have already assembled a world-class team of seasoned executives with deep experience in insurance and technology and we’ll continue to add to our bench as we expand capacity and scale to serve more customers.
As the newly appointed CEO of Converge Insurance, what are your top priorities and strategies for empowering policyholders with transparent cyber insurance solutions, particularly for SMBs with limited resources?
Cybersecurity is not a fair fight, especially for SMBs. They have limited resources and face impossible decisions on which cybersecurity controls to prioritize. Converge has a unique risk assessment model that tracks the frequency of events and resulting losses as they relate to cyberattack patterns. Our priority is to give visibility to our customers so that they can assess the impact of investment in any particular cybersecurity control, factoring in the cyber insurance premium and potential mitigation of losses.
The partnership with global insurer QBE North America seems like a significant step for Converge. Can you elaborate on the cyber insurance program that was launched, and what other partnerships can we expect as the company scales?
The program will consist of two separate programs, each with a distinct revenue focus and access to cybersecurity data for underwriting.
ConvergeElementsâ„¢ offers primary and excess cyber coverage through select agents and brokers for companies with up to $100 million in revenue. Our proprietary technology platform allows us to ingest and collate data from insurance applications, external system scans, and third-party data to feed our underwriting and claims workspaces, which will make it easier for SMBs to apply for insurance and for us to effectively underwrite and provide affordable policies.
ConvergeConnectâ„¢ offers primary cyber coverage through prequalified technology provider partnerships for companies with up to $750 million in revenue. These partners provide us with access to insured-specific behind-the-firewall security and underwriting data to provide best-in-class customer solutions leveraging unmatched insights on cybersecurity posture.
With the cyber insurance industry in dire need of modernization, how does Converge differentiate itself to mitigate risk effectively? How do you envision this platform making a global impact in the cyber insurance market?
Converge brings together insurance and technology in a completely new way. It’s not insurance people doing technology or technology and security professionals trying to solve tough insurance problems. We have seasoned insurance executives tackling difficult insurance challenges, which is meaningful for both our distribution partners and insureds. It’s the culmination and collaboration of these capabilities, along with our technology that uniquely translates the cybersecurity data to fit the insurance value chain. This has only been made possible through the seamless, market-leading underwriting platform we’ve developed. Our platform brings together data and insights to drive underwriting, which can ultimately deliver differentiated results quickly. ###