We wish you merry (and prosperous) expansion plans

While many of the respondents to our Christmas survey represent very large established companies, we also quizzed a few newer businesses, notably insurtech start-ups targeting the risk transfer space.

Perhaps naturally, expansion and growth were their main priorities as they attempt to make a mark in the established and often still traditional re/insurance space.

“We’ve recently moved into an office near London Bridge that’s three times the size of our previous one, so we’re now looking to fill it with fresh new talent - in particular software engineers, data scientists and sales people,” said Erik Abrahamsson, CEO, Digital Fineprint, a company that uses social media to help insurance companies innovate.

“We are expanding internationally, signing up new partners for the platform and are creating new insights from our data assets every day. Following our angel round which was closed in December last year we are now coming closer to closing our next funding round which would make this Christmas unforgettable.”

Samit Shah, insurance solutions manager, BitSight, which helps companies manage third and fourth party risk and underwrite cyber policies, offered a similar sentiment though an awareness of the threat of cyber will help with this goal.

“With regards to cyber insurance, third-party cybersecurity risk awareness is on my Christmas list this year. While there is still tremendous value in focusing on your portfolio clients and their security posture, recent breaches that resulted from insecure vendors underscore the interconnected nature of data sharing and the necessity to gain a better understanding of who your insureds do business with.

“Establishing and implementing a strategy around not just individual companies, but also those they do business which will strengthen the cyber insurance industry as a whole,” he said.

But it was not only the newer companies seeking expansion. Iain Bremner, managing director, Barbican Managing Agency, also said that he wants to seek opportunities to expand and capitalise on current and emerging market potential. “That may be through extending Barbican’s reach into new territories or bolstering our range of products or overall client service offering,” he said.

This is just a snapshot of what executives told us in our Christmas questionnaire. For the full comments from all 16 executives that took part in our survey, please click here.