Vitale: Resilience has 'strong' runway in ‘survival of the fittest’ cyber MGA landscape

By James Thaler

May 27 - (The Insurer) - Resilience’s Mario Vitale has said that the cyber insurtech has “strong runway” and strong investor support, and that M&A is unlikely to be a part of its strategy, as some peer cyber insurtechs have either been acquired by incumbents or exited the market.

The insurtech’s president made those comments in an interview on the sidelines of this month’s RIMS Riskworld event in Chicago, where he was asked to comment on the potential future ownership structure.

“We're in a very strong position. We have $100 million in the bank, and we have a strong growth and a strong runway. We have strong investors behind us. We have A-plus paper with our carriers that support us. We think we're in a great position. M&A is not part of our DNA,” he said.

“It's more organic growth, although we're not closed-minded if something comes along."

Vitale continued: “I just don't get bothered by the noise around us; we just keep focused on our business, doing a good job for our clients, delivering the lowest loss ratio in the business, in the middle-market space, than any other carrier."

Resilience’s $100 million Series D round announced in August 2023 was led by the ventures arm of Canadian carrier Intact, and had a roster of investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Founders Fund.

Peer insurtech Corvus was acquired by Travelers for $435 million at the start of 2024 and Cowbell raised a $60 million Series round from Zurich last year. There is speculation other cyber insurtechs could be acquired.

“These initial cyber MGAs that were in business, let's say pre-2020, we're seeing a lot of them go away for one reason or the other,” Vitale said in the interview.

“I call this more survival of the fittest. When the going gets tough, not everybody is able to survive. Not everybody is (bringing) satisfaction to their investors.

“And those first round of VCs deserve the kind of investment return that they deployed their money for and when they're not satisfied change also often happens.

“All the new entrants in (the market) should use that as a lesson because you need to really sell value and to grow and do branches,” Vitale continued.

Resilience has focused on the large account segment. VItale said the company could look to explore writing business in the middle market, targeting the SME space like peers Coalition and At-Bay, but this is unlikely in the near term.

“Never say never. And ultimately, I think that Resilience will be in that space, to be honest with you. It's not a focus right now, because what Resilience brings to the equation is different,” Vitale explained.

“We have as many great cyber warfare engineers working for us as we have underwriters. And that value, that human value, that comes from their skill sets, in addition to our AI, allows us to keep those clients very safe,” he said.

“In order to have that kind of service, you have to have a certain size client with a certain size IT mentality and a certain CISO mentality of leadership for cyber security. That tends to be the accounts that are larger rather than smaller,” Vitale continued.

“So, we generally, at the moment, don't focus under $100 million in revenue."

Watch the full interview with Resilience’s Mario Vitale to hear more on:

• Why the executive is “troubled” by soft conditions and entrants “buying their way” into the market;

• How Resilience plans to grow by market share, region and product line;

• Personnel changes at the firm and why “change is inevitable”, especially in cyber;

• The insurtech’s aim to bring consistency to distribution partners;

• The cyber firm’s runway around funding and emphasis on organic over inorganic growth;

• And more…