Balavant can stand out in competitive MGA platform field, insists CEO Skantharaja

By Chris Munro

June 26 - (The Insurer) - Balavant Insurance Group has “a few levers” it can pull to ensure that the newly formed MGA platform can stand out in what is an increasingly competitive field, CEO Rekha Skantharaja has declared.

Sister title E&S Insurer revealed in late May that Tangram Insurance Services was being spun out from parent Heffernan Group as the cornerstone portfolio company of Balavant.

Alongside Tangram, Balavant will also house Preferred Reinsurance Intermediaries, an MGA and programs-focused reinsurance brokerage.

According to the company, its name is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘one who possesses strength and power in body and character’.

Startup Balavant has targeted becoming a next-gen program manager that will leverage best-in-class technology, centralised services and ownership alignment with its underwriting teams that will collectively deliver profitable growth for both its carrier and distribution partners.

Since launching in 1999, Tangram has grown to book around $200 million of in-force premium each year. Balavant is looking to scale on that and grow into a $1 billion-plus premium MGA platform.

It intends to reach that target through a combination of organic growth and startup programs, fuelled by the arrival of underwriting teams, as well as M&A.

Balavant is led by Skantharaja, who has served as CEO of Tangram since 2018. She joined Tangram in 2009 and was appointed president in 2013.

The platform has launched at a time of continued growth in the programs and MGA space, and with the sector seeing a spate of platform launches in an increasingly competitive market segment.

BULLISH ON BALAVANT

Despite that competition, Skantharaja is bullish on Balavant’s ability to make meaningful inroads in the market.

“How are we going to differentiate from a crowded space of other platforms, aggregators, rollups that are out there in the marketplace? I think there's a few levers that we're going to pull,” Skantharaja told attendees at the Program Manager Conference 2025.

Firstly, the move to spin out Tangram and have it as Balavant’s foundational portfolio company means the MGA-focused business has been separated from its retail broking parent Heffernan.

As Skantharaja explained, her company has “come up to some constraints and limitations” where investments being made by its former parent “don’t work for our business model anymore”.

“Being a standalone MGA platform will allow us to have dedicated resources, dedicated capital, dedicated thought leadership,” she said.

Another differentiator is both hers and Tangram’s experience in the market, Skantharaja said.

“Having been in the business for a long time, having operated this specific company from when it was $2 million in revenue, $200,000 in profit and six people to what it is today, I have been on this journey,” she noted.

“Being able to demonstrate that to other operators that we're looking to bring onto the platform I think builds that trust.

“(We can) speak their language. I'm not someone that was installed from a PE from up high somewhere. I've done this. I've walked the hot coals. And so I think that's helpful,” Skantharaja added.

DIVERSE INVESTORS

And the Balavant chief also highlighted the new platform’s investors as another reason why it can stand out in the market.

“We have a diverse investment panel in Balavant,” said Skantharaja.

“(We’re) incredibly excited to continue our journey and be able to go and put some rocket fuel in the tank to take our next big leap,” she declared.

As E&S Insurer previously reported, SkyKnight Capital, which is also an investor in Heffernan, will be a significant owner of Balavant.

Heffernan president and CEO Mike Heffernan has also invested in Balavant alongside other backers in the retail broker, and Tangram’s management. The MGA platform will also invite capacity providers to participate as investors in the startup in a move that will strategically align Balavant with its carrier partners.

“We have invited capacity to the table. We’ve invited retailers to the table. We have invited PE to the table. When you put that together, I think forms a powerful coalition.”

Balavant’s formation also provides greater scale and size which it will be able to leverage in order to secure capacity and distribution partnerships, both for existing MGAs on its book and any potential new additions.

The startup MGA platform is understood to already have a strong pipeline, with work underway to broaden its offerings with strategic acquisitions of teams or entities in the coming months.