Arbol more than doubles parametric premiums written to $170m in 2022

Arbol, a technology-led underwriter of parametric risk transfer, climate and weather insurance or reinsurance business, has reported a more than doubling of its gross premiums underwritten for 2022, with the total rising to $170 million for the year.

The impressive growth represents a more than doubling of the $70 million in parametric GWP the firm transacted in all of 2021.

As we reported earlier this year, Arbol had already written over $100 million in gross written premium (GWP) in the first half of 2022.

The company has also reported that it ended 2022 cash-flow positive, for the second year in its history, while profitable underwriting was also delivered.

“The end-to-end ecosystem Arbol has built to address climate risk across balance sheets, supply chains, and operations has experienced tremendous growth and scale over the past few years,” explained Sid Jha, Founder and CEO of Arbol.

Adding, “Increasingly volatile and extreme weather events like a record drought in Texas and record damages from Hurricane Ian highlight the urgent need for climate-focused, financial products like insurance, which have never been more essential.

“Parametric coverage, powered by next-generation technology and data, is a powerful tool for enabling financial climate resilience and addressing the sizable global coverage gap for climate disasters.”

Growth has been found in Arbol’s agriculture and energy risk transfer products across the globe in 2022, while the parametric specialist has also expanded into new areas, including parametric reinsurance and travel risk transfer products.

In reinsurance, Arbol has expanded its offering for catastrophic coverage, such as for hurricanes, helping to solve key challenges for insurers dealing with inefficient and slow reinsurance settlements, along with a lack of sufficient risk capacity, the company explained.

As we recently reported, Arbol’s reinsurance solution delivered a $10 million payout to the Florida-based insurer Centauri just three weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall.

Also notable for 2022, Arbol made some key new hires, including Hector Ibarra to lead its Latin America offering, Jeffrey Khoo for Asia Pacific, as well as insurance-linked securities (ILS) market specialists Brad Livingstone as Head of Risk Capital Solutions and experienced ILS lawyer Matthew Gabin as its Chief Legal Officer and Deputy Chief Operating Officer.

For 2023, Arbol wants to expand its product range, with a focus on technology and data-driven solutions for corporate climate risk management, for industries impacted by climate change, and risk capital solutions to narrow the global protection gap for seasonal and catastrophic climate risks.