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Hello.

Back at the desk after a busy few days in London Town.

With Insurtech Insights Europe in town it’s meant we had a pile of clients fly in from around the world.

And, as such, we’ve had a LOT of meetings, shared and heard a huge amount of thinking, and explored a tonne of new ideas.

Plus we had a great Wednesday night Sønr Summit After Hours (our new branding for the client dinners we host – Chatham House rules, great people, and outrageously open conversations) in the Gaucho.

A big thanks to all those who came for dinner. And who made it over.

Plus a big congrats to Kristoffer, Rory, Red and team for a great event. Quality content, a huge international crowd, and somehow you even had the sun shining.

One to Watch:

Unfiltered with Matt & Nige

Those who know me will also know I love a plan.
This pod, however, is still very much in the ‘organic’ phase.

Especially when it comes to an official launch date!

A favourite question this week was ‘where can I find your pod with Nigel?’.

Well, it’s a good question.
Whilst we haven’t quite sorted the launch plans, we are building up the library of episodes.

If you want to tune in, get a sense of what we’re up to, and follow us early (and whilst we’re still finding our feet), you can here:

Watch/Read: Substack | YouTube
Listen: Spotify

From tools to operators

At Insurtech Insights I spoke with a bunch of founders of startups and scaleups. We hear a lot from incumbents about the impact of AI but I’ve not really got under the skin of just how the new world is impacting the tech players.

And almost every conversation centered around one thing: the ability to execute and evolve at speed.

Teams spinning up new products and features faster than ever.
Mocking up prototypes in the hours before a client meeting.
Evolving platforms in ways that just weren’t possible 18 months ago.

It’s happening. Fast.

And you’re now starting to see it showing up in the market.

This week Cytora is pushing further into “agentic” workflows with its new Autopilot capability, stitching together data, decisions and actions across underwriting and claims.

Another is UnderwriteMe, which is tackling post-issue audits with an AI Engine designed to detect misrepresentation at scale, shifting focus from speed to control across the book.

Aviva is extending its AI underwriting approach into critical illness, using it to summarise medical evidence and accelerate decisions. [Btw if you ever get the chance to watch Arslan Hannani present on stage, make sure you do. Superb.]

Then you’ve got ZestyAI being adopted by Harford Mutual and AEIG to improve property-level risk insight using computer vision and external data. This also speaks to a broader shift which got a fair bit of airtime this week – AI improving the inputs, not just the outputs.

And sitting slightly above all of this, it looks like the regulators are starting to lean in.

Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority has launched a cross-sector GenAI Sandbox++, explicitly bringing insurance into controlled experimentation environments. Interesting stuff.

Embedded finds its rhythm

It was only a couple of years back when embedded was the darling trend.
Panels. Headlines. Every second conversation.

This time around… not so much.
With a couple of exceptions.

On Tuesday, Yuri’s Open and Embedded Observatory plenary was packed and widely talked about. And there was no WiFI without either tapping in bolttech as the password, or seeing one of their very talented team on stage.

So yeah, maybe not the darling trend, but very much part of the continued innovation narrative.

And when you look at what’s actually happening in the market…

Willis and Qover are teaming up to scale embedded insurance through a combined distribution and pricing ecosystem, a proper signal that embedded is becoming infrastructure, not experiment.

Another example, QBE, via QBE Ventures, has partnered with Aurora to launch a fully embedded, end-to-end algorithmic underwriting capability for complex specialty risks, starting with Yacht P&I.

From ingesting unstructured broker emails, through validation, underwriting, pricing, documentation and bind, all completed in under ten minutes for a complex risk that previously took days. Nice, right?

Fully governed. Sitting inside QBE’s own systems, appetite and controls.

For brokers, it means immediate decisions and instant certificate issuance.
For QBE, it means scaling specialty portfolios with consistency, auditability and no additional operational drag.

Feels like an important shift.

At the same time, Certua Life is taking that further, launching with an embedded-first model designed to sit inside apps rather than behind brokers. Faster journeys, simpler integrations. Exactly where things are heading.

And underneath all of this sits the plumbing.

Early-stage Gangkhar’s oversubscribed $4.25m seed round is focused on building AI-native infrastructure for embedded protection globally, while Kayna’s €1.5m raise is pushing a similar proposition across the UK and US.

Parametric grows up

The same rapid product evolution is happening in parametric too.

Floodbase is shifting to something more scalable with its new Quote API, collapsing what used to be bespoke structuring into instant, repeatable workflows.

And what do you do after exiting your business?

Well, for FloodFlash co-founder Ian Bartholomew, he’s heading to Guy Carpenter to lead parametric advisory globally. Why not? If nothing else, plenty to learn over there.

Capital doing its thing

On the capital side, things feel steady. But evolving.

Heritage secured $250m of named storm protection via its Citrus Re cat bond. There’s definitely continued appetite from capital markets, maybe just in slightly different forms.

Nascent Re’s first listed ILS issuance is smaller, but directionally interesting. More ways to package and access risk capital.

And in distribution-led growth, Azos’ $25m Series C in Brazil continues the theme – simple, digital life propositions scaling in underpenetrated markets.

Then slightly left-field, but worth keeping an eye on.

Wonderful has raised $150m at a whopping $2bn valuation to scale AI agents across voice, chat and email globally. And while it’s not insurance-specific, this is exactly the layer insurers will end up plugging into for customer interaction.

Last one on this.

I bumped into Mihkel Mandre of Lyfery. An ambitious entrepreneur who was happy for me to share they’re raising a Seed round. Get in touch directly (with Mihkel!) if you’d like to know more.

The stuff that actually matters

Some of the most interesting shifts are happening at the core.

Aon has completed a stablecoin premium payment PoC using USDC and PYUSD.

It’s a small step, but a meaningful one. This is how settlement infrastructure starts to move. Quietly.

Ortec Finance has launched a tool (GLASS PRISM) that uses AI to help insurers decide how to allocate their investments.

Not the flashiest story this week, but it’s the kind of tooling that quietly reshapes how insurers make money over time.

Right, time to record a pod.

And then settle into a weekend of training, sunshine and catching up with good friends. What more could you want?

I’ll be heading to NYC next so drop me a line if you’re out that way, or know folk I should be catching up with.

I’ll be bringing some filming equipment too as we kick off the Beyond Boundaries exec interview series for 2026 again. Should be fun.

For now, have great weekends all.

Big love,

Matt

Make smarter decisions with AI-driven market intelligence.

Sønr helps (re)insurers around the world explore market trends, track competitor activity, and scout and assess best-in-class tech companies.