Beat Capital Partners, a long duration investor specialising in the insurance industry, has announced its plans to launch a specialty and tech enabled credit non-payment insurance underwriter, Convergence.
With an initial focus on Europe and North America, the business is expected to underwrite through a Lloyd’s consortium, led by Beat Syndicate 4242, with Stephen Pike as CEO and founder.
Convergence’s coverage aims to meet the growing and largely unaddressed need for portfolio solutions among banks and global financial institutions, specifically targeting the insurance of credit risk portfolios.
According to Beat, its insurer’s approach will leverage a unique combination of technology and data analytics, powered by a proprietary algorithmic modelling platform developed in partnership with University College London (UCL).
This platform will enable Convergence to swiftly integrate, enhance, and utilise the extensive data provided by financial institutions, allowing it to offer unparalleled efficiency and precision in servicing a broad spectrum of opportunities in economic risk management.
The Convergence team will be led by CEO and founder Pike, who with two decades of credit experience brings extensive expertise to the business.
He previously held the role of global head of credit and political risk (CPR) at Canopius, having joined the CPR team in 2017. Pike went on to evolve the global reinsurer’s proposition from single situations through the creation of a portfolio credit team.
Prior to that he was co-head of trade finance at ED&F MAN Capital Markets where he established the business’s global trade finance business.
The executive started his career at Merrill Lynch going on to be a portfolio analyst at Cyrus Capital, a credit special situations fund.
Pike will be joined by Jeremy Hatchuel as co-founder and partner, bringing 10 years of quantitative expertise at the intersection of the capital markets and insurance.
Hatchuel started his career as an ILS structurer at Aon Securities and later joined the Canopius CPR team to lead its portfolio solutions function.
Pike commented: “Convergence will be launched to take advantage of the many opportunities available in the CPR market. It is a complex sector and the team has a wealth of experience.
“We will be data driven and have developed a proprietary model with UCL which will provide scalable solutions for our clients. Our purpose-built technology, industry knowledge and understanding of individual clients will give us a market leading position.”
John Cavanagh, chairman of Beat, said: “Beat is always looking for fresh and innovative insurance business ideas led by entrepreneurs with extensive knowledge and expertise in their field.
“Stephen stood out in this class due to his depth of client understanding and unique focus on bringing the best-in-class technology to launch a truly differentiated business in the credit insurance market. We look forward to working with them when they get started and to supporting their innovation.”
