QBE Insurance and Starr Companies have joined CIC to invest in Cytora as it prepares to launch a risk assessment engine for property and casualty insurance.
Cytora, a UK-based insurance technology spinout of Cambridge University, raised £4.4m ($5.9m) yesterday in a round backed by Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), a patient capital fund affiliated with the university.
Insurance firm QBE Insurance and financial services conglomerate Starr Companies also provided funding for the round.
Cytora’s risk assessment engine uses language processing and machine learning to identify insurance risks in data held both internally and externally by insurers. The system aims to reduce the ratio between insurance claims and the price of premiums by as much as 18%.
The money will be used to expand Cytora’s data science and engineering expertise as the spinout nears an international launch in the property and casualty insurance segments. QBE, Starr and fellow insurer XL Catlin already have access to the service.
Cytora raised $3.2m in January 2017 series A round led by university-focused investment fund Parkwalk Advisors, which was itself acquired by commercialisation firm IP Group in December 2016.
The round was also backed by Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s commercialisation arm, as well as neurolinguistics programming developer iLexIR and a range of angel investors.
Cambridge Enterprise had led an earlier round of undisclosed size in 2015 with contributions from Parkwalk and undisclosed angels after Accelerate Cambridge, an accelerator run by the university’s Judge Business School, provided approximately $23,000 in 2013.
Andrew Williamson, investment director for CIC, said: “Cytora is an exciting company based on ideas created in Cambridge but with global applications. We are delighted to support the company as it starts the next stage of its evolution.”
Hank Greenberg, chairman of Starr Companies, added: “We are excited to be partnering with Cytora as they continue to expand and bring their advanced analytical capabilities to the insurance industry.”