Beat to launch credit insurance business under former Canopius/Aon veterans
Insurance-focused investor Beat Capital Partners plans to launch a credit insurance business expected to underwrite through a Lloyd’s consortium, led by Beat Syndicate 4242, with Stephen Pike as CEO and founder.
Beat will launch Convergence, a specialty and tech enabled credit non-payment insurance underwriter, to take advantage of the opportunities available in the credit and political risk market.
The company said Convergence will step into the market 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. Its approach will leverage a combination of technology and data analytics, powered by a proprietary algorithmic modelling platform developed in partnership with University College London (UCL). The platform enables Convergence to swiftly integrate, enhance, and utilise the extensive data provided by financial institutions.
Pike will bring extensive expertise to the business, with 20 years of credit experience. He previously held the role of global head of credit and political risk (CPR) at Canopius, having joined the CPR team in 2017. Prior to that, he was co-head of trade finance at ED&F MAN Capital Markets where he established the business’ global trade finance business. He 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, co-founder and partner. He has 10 years of quantitative expertise at the intersection of the capital markets and insurance, starting his career as an ILS structurer at Aon Securities and later joining the Canopius CPR team to lead its portfolio solutions function.
Pike said: “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.”
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