Blockchain-Powered Reinsurer Re Raises $14 Million Seed Round to Build Decentralized Market

The company sees its protocol as providing collective backing of insurance policies in a similar way to the Lloyd’s of London market.

By Will Canny

Sep 28, 2022 at 3:20 p.m. UTC

Updated Oct 3, 2022 at 3:04 p.m. UTC

CDCROP: Inside the Lloyd's of London insurance market. (Lloyd's of London) — Inside the Lloyd's of London insurance market. (Lloyd's of London)

Will Canny

Will Canny is CoinDesk's finance reporter.

Re, a blockchain-powered reinsurance company, raised $14 million in seed-round funding to build a decentralized system that aims to fill a function similar to the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Tribe Capital, Defy, Exor, Stratos, Framework, Morgan Creek Digital and SiriusPoint participated in the round, alongside a number of angel investors.

Built on the Avalanche blockchain, Re’s protocol allows retail investors and cryptocurrency holders a way of backing insurance policies. The reinsurer works with underwriting teams, known as syndicates, to evaluate the financial merits of insurance programs brought to the protocol, it said.

“We’re building a decentralized global insurance transaction layer that settles any kind of insurance risk in a way that’s transparent to regulators, partners and investors,” CEO Karn Saroya said in a statement.

Re has assessed more than $300 million in potential premium from insurance programs, it said, and will use the new funding to expand its reinsurance underwriting pipeline. The company is looking for underwriters and actuaries to apply for syndicate roles on the protocol, and has already appointed Joe Gaito and Jason Hoffman of Freedom Re Underwriters as its first independent syndicate.

David Hampson, former CEO of Willis Programs – a unit of global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings – has joined the company as a strategic adviser and independent board member, Re said.

“For members who provide capital, they earn uncorrelated yields that are comparable to high yield fixed income,” Saroya said.

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