Lloyd’s insurance vehicle Inigo surpasses £885m in gross written premium

The specialist insurer Inigo has surpassed $1bn (£800m) in gross written premium as well as reporting skyrocketing results for its profit before tax.

Inigo, which was founded in 2020, has reported a profit before tax of $144.5m (£116.2m) for its 2023 results, a jump from its 2022 figure of $28.7m (£23m). The insurer also increased its gross written premium by 35.2 per cent to $1.1bn, (£884.7m) up from $801.5m.

While, its net earned premium grew by 44.6 per cent from $513.8m (£413m) to $743.2m (£598m). The company’s cash and investments increased by 43.8 per cent to $1.5bn (£1.2bn) and net assets by 26.2 per cent to $808.9m (£650m). This included $50.1m (£40m) of new capital raised in December 2023 “to support future growth”.

Inigo stated that the main driver of higher profits was an improvement in the combined ratio by 8.9 points to 85.5 per cent, down from 94.4 per cent in 2022.

The claims ratio also improved by 7.2 points to 55.3 per cent due to a decrease in catastrophe losses year-over-year and a higher level of prior-year reserve releases, and the expense ratio reduced by 1.7 points, due to greater operating leverage, to 30.2 per cent .

Back in 2021, Inigo posted its first ever results, which revealed it had over $400m (£321m) in gross written premium, which made it the biggest start-up syndicate in Lloyd’s history.

Its strategy is to focus on a limited number of areas where it sees the greatest opportunity for individual risk underwriting to outperform the cycle.

The company says data science is at its core. Over the last year, it implemented a data lake and made significant investments in gathering data, bringing data science expertise in-house, and establishing new partnerships with some of the world’s leading academic institutions in London and Cambridge.

Inigo states that it looks for lines where data offers the opportunity to write better premiums. This includes natural catastrophe risks in both insurance and reinsurance portfolios, where in-house meteorologists, seismologists, and climate science experts have enabled more accurate analysis and prediction of the risk.

Commenting on the results, its chief executive Richard Watson stated that the company loves what it does and it is sticking to the strategy.

“We focus on a limited number of areas where our customers really value the expertise and knowledge we are building. The advances in computer science and the ability to gather and analyse data, offer so much potential to reinvent how risk is understood and managed,” he continued.

He added that “the book is growing, and the potential is only limited by market cycles and our imagination. We are grateful for the continued support from our policyholders and brokers, from Lloyd’s and our investors.”