CommerzVentures has made a USD6 million investment into Concirrus, a speciality analytics insurtech company. This latest investment by CommerzVentures follows a recent announcement which saw London-based VC firm AlbionVC lead on a USD 20 million series B funding round, which included participation from current investors IQ Capital and EOS Venture Partners, as well as several angel investors. Royal Park Partners acted as exclusive financial advisors to Concirrus and its board of directors on the deal. With many new clients added to its customer portfolio in the last quarter, Concirrus continues to demonstrate and reinforce its strong credentials with some of the most respected leaders in the market, the company said. Heiko Schwender, partner at CommerzVentures, commented on the deal: "Our passion lies in helping fintech and insurtech companies to succeed. We believe Concirrus has the best solution to manage risk in the marine insurance industry. Using the latest advancements in AI and machine learning, the company has developed a behavioural-based underwriting platform called Quest, which aims to deliver highly differentiated pricing, portfolio management and predictive analytics. Schwender continued: "Ultimately, it will serve insurance carriers in a variety of supply chain industries.

North P&I Club has announced that it has chosen Concirrus as a digital partner. Concirrus's digital platform, Quest Marine P&I, will contribute to North's loss-prevention and risk-assessment capabilities, the company said. "The activities of the club's loss-prevention department contribute significantly to the understanding of our members' operations, and these will be augmented by leveraging the latest machine-learning techniques and behaviour-based data analytics, which we can access through Quest Marine P&I," said Colin Gillespie, director of loss prevention at North P&I Club. "This in turn has the potential to bring longer-term benefits to underwriting and risk selection, and we believe that the platform will become an important part of our loss-prevention tool kit." The Quest Marine P&I platform brings together billions of rows of dynamic marine and customer data into a single, customisable web application.

London-based insurtech Concirrus has launched a new artificial intelligence-powered cargo data analytics solution in partnership with brokers Marsh JLT Specialty and Willis Re Specialty. The company claims it has the potential to "revolutionise" the way cargo insurance is priced, selected and managed in the industry. The new solution, called Quest Marine Cargo, will be available from first quarter 2020, and will fully integrate with Concirrus' existing suite of hull and P&I capabilities. It will provide full analytics on the entire cargo journey - from factory gates to customer warehouse using advanced AI combined with the latest cargo monitoring. Concirrus said the launch is a part of its wider innovation strategy which is centred around developing solutions that deliver greater efficiencies to the 300-year old re/insurance industry.

EY has announced that it will collaborate with InsurTech company Concirrus to support the adoption of behavioural-based underwriting and risk management in marine insurance, using artificial intelligence (AI) powered software. The partnership is intended to help modernise the marine sector's traditional demographic based underwriting models, which rely on data like the age, size and flag of a vessel, and which are under increasing pressure to underwrite risks better and faster. Concirrus has developed AI-driven software that utilises new sensor, machine and analytical capabilities, which can help re/insurers better understand their exposures and control claims. Harnessing these technologies at scale, the partnership will allow marine re/insurers to better manage their risk portfolio and develop more accurate underwriting models by utilising behaviour analysis and considering factors like a vessel's speed and location. Chris Payne, Head of Insurance Technology, Europe, Middle East, India & Africa (EMEIA) at EY, said: "Driving innovation within the specialty insurance market is something we are very focused on. The unique toolsets and data that Concirrus has access to will drive new insights in the marine insurance industry, and we are thrilled to be working together. "Leveraging EY's insurance knowledge and longstanding relationships in the industry, and Concirrus' unique combination of data and proprietary technology, we can help insurers, brokers and Protection and indemnity insurance clubs enter a new world of marine insurance." Andy Yeoman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Concirrus, also commented: "EY's domain knowledge and expertise at scaling technology will be a great addition to our software.