Why We Invested in Vellum: Building The Next-Gen Analytics and Data Platform for Insurance and Reinsurance

We are beyond thrilled to announce our seed investment in Vellum, a new startup that aims to replace some of the insurance industry’s oldest technologies with a new data management and analytics solution that will help carriers and reinsurance companies continue to innovate in an increasingly volatile risk landscape.

In the past decade, we’ve experienced an increase in catastrophic insurance events, including wildfires in California and Maui, and Hurricane Ian in Florida. These had tremendous financial impacts on consumers, community businesses and their insurers. The frequency of these and increasing financial losses are causing some insurers to exit the market, leaving some consumers and companies unable to insure their most valuable assets.

One notable reason why insurers are shying away from new markets and exiting current ones is due to their inability to effectively evaluate risk and price policies. To get it right in the current environment, accurate and timely data is required, in addition to greater transparency between insurance risk partners. But unfortunately, the reinsurance market is far from accessing data in real time and collaborating with partners through modern, digital means. Most of the work is still done in Excel spreadsheets and with paper-based methods, and the back office technology comes from the 1980s and 1990s. 

Vellum’s Big Idea

Jules Muir, Vellum Co-Founder and CEO, is a reinsurance industry leader with over 15 years of operating experience in the insurance and reinsurance industry at Guy Carpenter, Hamilton USA, Attune and McKinsey. She witnessed the growing challenges to risk modeling and innovation, and identified the need for significant improvements to core insurance technologies, business processes and data analytics. 

 Vellum’s core product is an analytics and data platform that connects the insurance value chain ranging from managing general agents (MGAs) to carriers and reinsurers, driving innovation and profitability through enhanced risk management and efficiency. The platform leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically ingest, validate and aggregate data generated by MGAs and reinsurance transactions. Vellum’s platform also provides an intelligence layer that facilitates real-time risk monitoring, actuarial and underwriting analytics, as well as financial reporting for reinsurers and carriers.

Vellum currently works with carriers and reinsurers and is integrating data from dozens of MGAs and reinsurance treaties onto a single platform. It supports multiple lines of business across property and casualty (P&C) insurance, including property, general liability, inland marine and automotive.  

A Team to Foster Collaboration and Innovation in the Insurance Sector

We’re really excited to back Jules and the team that she’s assembled to date. It includes Co-Founder and CTO John Cappielo, a startup veteran and builder of highly scalable technology platforms who most recently created the healthcare industry’s largest de-identified data ecosystem at HealthVerity. Completing the founding team is head of operations Paul Toomath, an expert in operations and finance who previously worked with Jules at McKinsey.

We wish them great success and speed in working with their first design customers to revitalize outdated industry practices with modern tech solutions and new risk modeling approaches. Vellum’s $7 million seed financing announced today will accelerate growth and enable the team to build out its platform to meet the needs of its rapidly growing customer base. They can certainly count on all of us at Flourish Ventures, and our investment partners at Acrew Capital, Fin Capital, Vera Equity, Endurance and 1 Sharpe Ventures, to provide them with the guidance and additional expertise they’ll need to scale fast.