Exclusive: Former Rethink CEO Prince partners with Artificial Labs to launch smart-follow MGA

By Ryan Hewlett

July 10 - (The Insurer) - Former Rethink CEO Daniel Prince has established a London MGA called Augmented, he confirmed to The Insurer in an exclusive interview, with the startup expected to formally launch later this year and bind 2025 business.

Prince said the new MGA will utilise AI-enhanced algorithmic underwriting to build digital relationships between carriers and brokers in the smart-follow market.

Augmented has already completed a debut fundraise supported by algorithmic underwriting and placement insurtech Artificial Labs, which will also provide the MGA with technology and software tools. MGA incubator City Insurance Brokers will provide Augmented’s back-office and compliance solutions.

Prince said: “Working with Artificial was an easy choice and seemed logical when we started getting into discussions. We had known each other for a long time, both believe in supporting others on their digital journey and for us it provided the fastest route to market. In my mind, the blend of Artificial’s highly configurable platform with our own MGA, data and tech experience is creating a very powerful offering for the market.”

With the startup aiming to bind its first risk in the fourth quarter of 2025, Augmented will initially target property and terrorism with a broader build-out expected through 2026 and beyond.

Prince, who will serve as Augmented CEO, said the startup will offer algorithmic underwriting as a service, with a focus on being the facilitator for brokers to create their own in-house follow panels in London.

“It's all about the broker creating their own vision of how they want their placement strategy to work, and we enable it. Fundamentally, this is about enabling these brokers to trade with their partner underwriters and still feel empowered,” he said. “It is designed to be the most cost-effective, quickest to implement and most configurable solution for brokers and carriers.”

Smart-follow underwriting has been increasingly utilised in the London market. Dedicated smart-follow syndicates wrote more than $1.5 billion of gross premium at Lloyd’s during 2023, highlighting the rapid growth of this approach to underwriting in recent years since Ki and Beazley launched syndicates in 2021 and 2018, respectively.

But Prince said many of the current platforms are still not perfect and that people have learnt a lot in the last five years of operating in this space. He said data, operational and tech issues have led to frustrations for early adopters and meant that the end-to-end process has not always delivered the efficiency people expected.

“It is that detail of accuracy and a desire to be great at the less exciting bits that will define our success over everyone else, and that will enable us to be so much more flexible and nimbler, to be able to fulfil the kind of ambitions of the brokers and carriers that we work with,” he said.

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS

He said Augmented will focus on combining enhanced underwriting with Lloyd’s follow capacity to provide digital solutions for broker partners.

But unlike Ki or the London market digital trading platform InsurX, Prince said the MGA will not be looking to run portfolio trackers or create a new marketplace. Instead, he said the focus is on brokers looking to create their own specialty follow panels.

“We want to keep the focus on the broker and the insurer relationship – we’re not there to get in the way but to enable better outcomes. We don’t believe the relationship or deal-making between the broker and carrier is broken – indeed in many cases it is excellent and something that London does well – and we’re not there to bring a panel of capacity to a broker, instead we’re there to provide the infrastructure to trade digitally,” said Prince.

“A large part of our value will be bringing the broker and their carriers together regularly and showing them where growth has been missed due to rules or underwriting restrictions that were triggered. Carriers can then change their rules regularly to try and be as relevant to brokers as their appetite allows and be alive to current market conditions. We have a great vision for portfolio analytics and feel this will bring lasting value to all sides.”

EXPANSION PLANNED

Prince has already assembled a team of industry practitioners all of whom have experience in the enhanced underwriting space, with expansion planned throughout the rest of 2025.

Prince said that an early focus for the team has been the design and build of the platform. He explained that brokers can trade with the MGA using only email and without the need to fill in lengthy data forms. Augmented’s platform then uses AI, with underwriter oversight, to structure the submission data to enable the algorithm to quote. He adds that he expects the platform will be particularly attractive to intermediaries who do not currently have their own smart-follow platforms.

Prince also spoke about his desire to enable all brokers access to these tools and not just a select few and sees integration with the major placement platforms as a great way to achieve this whilst bringing the benefit of brokers starting their digital journey sooner and not just at the bind stage.

“If these brokers can access digital follow and secure access to a panel of followers, they'll be better placed to compete and look for more efficiency,” he said. “It’s good for brokers, clients and good for making London more competitive, which is good for all of us.”