InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant & Robin Merttens

InsTech
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Bringing together the best technology and innovation for insurance and risk management together from around the world. Podcast hosted by Matthew Grant.

  1. Portfolio underwriting in 2026 (397)

    5D AGO

    Portfolio underwriting in 2026 (397)

    In this episode, Robin Merttens moderates a panel with Tessa Wardle of QBE, Emily Stanford of Gallagher and Jonathan Spry of Envelop Risk, recorded live at the InsTech London event Some lead, others follow: Smart underwriting and broking strategies for 2026.  As algorithmic underwriting and portfolio solutions reshape the London Market, insurers, brokers and reinsurers are rethinking how risk is placed, followed and managed at scale. Facilities are multiplying, digital trading models are emerging and data is becoming the foundation of increasingly automated underwriting decisions.  Drawing on perspectives from underwriting, broking and reinsurance, the panel explores what portfolio underwriting really looks like in practice today. They discuss how facilities are evolving, why broker strategies are changing and what it takes to run sustainable portfolio capacity in a market that is becoming more digital and more data-driven.   At the centre of the discussion is a growing tension between ambition and infrastructure. The market wants faster placement, smarter capital allocation and more algorithmic decision-making, yet many firms are still wrestling with fragmented data, legacy systems and inconsistent standards.  In this conversation, Tessa, Emily and Jonathan share:  Why portfolio solutions have become one of the fastest-growing models in the London Market  How brokers are evolving their placement strategies as facilities and pre-placed capacity expand  Why selecting the right portfolio leader is critical for long-term facility performance  How improving data quality is becoming a prerequisite for digital trading and algorithmic underwriting  Why incentives across brokers, carriers and reinsurers matter when it comes to better data  How AI is reshaping risk, creating new liability exposures and changing how insurers analyse emerging threats  Why capital providers are increasingly demanding greater transparency and portfolio insight If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    23 min

  2. MAR 1

    Nicola Turner & Alex Ley: Scrub AI: Rethinking Build vs Buy in insurance (396)

    In this episode, Matthew Grant sits down with Nicola Turner and Alex Ley, co-founders of Scrub AI, to explore one of the most pressing strategic questions facing insurers today: Build vs Buy in the age of generative AI.  Five years into building an AI-driven data cleansing platform for carriers and brokers, Nicola and Alex have seen the market shift from scepticism to urgency. Boardrooms are now asking how AI is being embedded into underwriting workflows, and whether those capabilities should be developed internally or sourced from specialists.  Drawing on their experience building deterministic AI models for exposure data and catastrophe modelling, they offer a grounded perspective on what works, what breaks and where the real risks sit.  At the heart of the discussion is a simple truth: getting to 80% is easy. Getting the final 20% right is where strategy, domain expertise and long-term thinking matter most.  In this conversation, Nicola and Alex share:  Why Build vs Buy has intensified as generative AI moves from experimentation to executive priority  How investor pressure and board-level scrutiny are shaping AI strategy inside large carriers  Why generative AI can accelerate development but does not remove the complexity of insurance data  The danger of plausible but wrong outputs in exposure management and catastrophe modelling  Why deterministic AI still plays a critical role in delivering consistent, renewal-ready data  How inconsistent data cleaning can distort underwriting decisions and renewal pricing  The hidden cost of technical debt when insurers attempt to build internally  Why maintaining and iterating ai tools is often harder than building the first version  If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    32 min

  3. FEB 22

    Frank Perkins, Founder & CEO: inari: Building the modern MGA (395)

    In this episode, Robin Merttens sits down with Frank Perkins, CEO and Co-founder of inari, to explore what it really takes to build and scale a modern MGA in 2026.  From founding an insurance business himself to leading a technology company serving specialist MGAs across Europe, Frank brings a rare dual perspective. He understands both the pressure of getting premium through the door and the responsibility of building systems that underwriters actually want to use.  As private equity capital accelerates into the sector and niche, digital-first MGAs proliferate across continental Europe, the conversation turns to speed, integration and the quiet evolution of the underwriting workbench.  In this conversation, Frank shares:  Why technology literacy is now firmly in the hands of business users, not just IT departments  How the rise of highly specialised MGAs is reshaping what underwriting platforms need to deliver  Why “rip and replace” transformation programmes are giving way to orchestration and coexistence  How AI is materially accelerating integrations and onboarding, cutting rollout times from months to days  The difference between generic AI tooling and insurance-specific intelligence  Why speed of execution is becoming a defining competitive advantage  What a tightening market cycle will mean for operational efficiency  Why continental Europe may offer the next major growth wave for MGAs  How culture and domain expertise can matter as much as code in a crowded market  If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    22 min

  4. FEB 15

    How automation is shaping the future of claims in the Lloyd's and London market (394)

    In this episode, we bring you a live panel from InsTech’s May event at CodeNode, exploring how automation is reshaping claims in the Lloyd’s and London market — and why the belief that specialty is too complex to automate no longer stands.  Moderated by Matthew Grant, CEO of InsTech, the panel features Simon White, Chief Claims Officer at Apollo, Aidan O’Neill, Founder and CEO of DOCOsoft, and Zoe Woods, Claims Improvement Manager at Lloyd’s.  Specialty claims have long been viewed as too bespoke, too nuanced and too reliant on human judgement for automation to play a meaningful role. But as underwriting becomes algorithmic and distribution turns digital, claims can no longer lag behind.  This conversation moves beyond theory to evidence. Automation is already embedded in live workflows across the market. The firms adopting early are seeing measurable operational gains.  In this conversation, they share:  Why the myth that specialty claims cannot be automated is finally breaking down  How Apollo processed more than 23,000 claims through automated checks, cutting handling times to under a working day  What happens when you ask claims handlers to map every task they repeat on each file  Why automation should augment decision-making rather than create black boxes  How structured data and integrated dashboards unlock meaningful AI use cases  What Lloyd’s is doing to balance innovation with oversight in a syndicated market  Why modular, plug-and-play services are replacing large-scale transformation programmes  What specialty can learn from automation in motor and property lines  Why starting small with repeatable processes creates fast, tangible wins  How claims is shifting from cost centre to strategic differentiator  If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    17 min

  5. FEB 8

    Automated underwriting: a pioneer’s perspective (393)

    What actually makes automated and enhanced underwriting work in practice?  In this episode, three early movers in automated underwriting share hard-earned lessons from building digital underwriting propositions that have survived real market cycles. Rather than theory or hype, this conversation digs into where technology genuinely creates advantage, where it does not, and how underwriting judgement remains central even in highly algorithmic models.  Drawing on experience across cyber, US property and digital facilities, the panel explores why complexity, not commoditisation, is often where automation delivers the greatest edge. From AI-driven cyber underwriting to high-cat surplus lines property and digitally distributed specialty products, each speaker explains how they chose their focus and what they learned along the way.  Key themes include the role of data discipline in sustaining AI-led underwriting, why platform design matters more than speed to market, and how underwriters’ roles are shifting from generalists to specialists embedded in algorithmic decision making. The discussion also tackles unstructured data, submission quality and why “no data, no deal” may become a defining principle of future underwriting models.  What you’ll learn in this episode:  Why complex risks can be better suited to automated and augmented underwriting than simple, commoditised ones  How AI and machine learning are being applied in live underwriting decisions, not just analytics  The importance of volume, homogeneity and risk differentiation when building algorithmic models  Lessons from re-platforming early digital products and avoiding long-term technical debt  How generative AI is changing data cleaning, exposure management and submission handling  What enhanced underwriting means for underwriter skills, careers and decision making  Featuring perspectives from Marek Shafer of Vave, Tom Squires of AEGIS London and Jonathan Spry of Envelop Risk, moderated by Matthew Grant of InsTech.  You can also watch the video version of this panel here.  If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    15 min

  6. FEB 1

    Liselotte Munk, CEO: Fadata: AI, insurance software & the future of policy admin (392)

    What happens when AI meets the backbone of the insurance industry - policy administration systems? In this episode, Liselotte Munk, CEO of Fadata, joins Robin Merttens to unpack how artificial intelligence is reshaping the software layer of insurance.  With candid insights into Fadata’s AI strategy, Liselotte reveals how the company is using AI to accelerate software development and reduce implementation costs while improving quality. She tackles the big question: will AI make policy admin systems obsolete? Her answer offers a pragmatic view on cost, complexity, compliance and collaboration.  In this conversation, Liselotte shares:  How AI is already streamlining configuration, documentation and testing in core systems Why the true opportunity lies in faster implementations and reduced transformation costs How the role of developers is shifting, and what this means for insurance talent Why insurers should invest in AI to enhance - not replace - their core platforms What the smartest insurers are doing now to future-proof operations in an AI-first world If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    18 min

  7. JAN 25

    Tobi Schneider, Sector Engagement Lead for Financial Services & FinTech, Edinburgh Futures Institute: Creating a new kind of assurance & insurance framework for AI-related risks (391)

    In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Tobi Schneider, Sector Engagement Lead for Financial Services & FinTech at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, to unpack one of the most ambitious research initiatives currently shaping the future of AI risk in insurance. Backed by UKRI and developed in collaboration with AXA Group and three leading universities, the project aims to build a foundational blueprint for how insurers can understand, audit and underwrite emerging AI risks.  Tobi shares why the shift from traditional to generative and agentic AI has outpaced current risk frameworks, leaving insurers exposed to risks that are poorly defined, difficult to monitor and impossible to price using historic loss data. He explains how his team is exploring dynamic underwriting models, parametric solutions and novel assurance techniques like LLM-based judges and automated red teaming, all with the goal of enabling safer, more accountable AI adoption.  Ahead of the Agentic AI Half Day event, hosted in collaboration with AI Risk, Tobi Schneider and Lukasz Szpruch wrote an article The New Frontier: Managing and insuring generative and agentic AI risks, further exploring this topic.   In this conversation, Tobi shares:  Why AI systems that function “correctly” can still produce harmful or costly outcomes  How traditional insurance models fail in the face of opacity, model drift and dynamic learning  What makes AI risk so difficult to price and how parametric triggers can help bridge the gap  Why better assurance leads to better insurance, and how incentives can drive safer AI deployment  How continuous monitoring tools are being developed to audit AI models in real time  What today’s early AI insurance offerings (from the likes of Munich Re and Relm) are actually covering  The role of non-profit research in supporting commercial innovation without commercial bias  What insurers can do now to prepare for an AI-driven future even without historical data  If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    15 min

  8. JAN 18

    Bootstrap Confidential Episode 11: Building a bootstrapped exit with Matthew Grant (390)

    This week we bring you an episode of Bootstrap Confidential featuring InsTech’s very own CEO, Matthew Grant, who joined Charles Green in the latter half of 2025 to reflect on the eight-year journey of building InsTech from the ground up without outside funding, and with an intentional focus on sustainable growth.  Matthew’s route to growing InsTech wasn’t typical. With a background in risk, analytics and around 400 podcast episodes as a host, he brought a deep understanding of the insurance sector and what it takes to build a commercially viable, insight-led business. The result? A thriving community of over 30,000, a high-margin membership model and a successful exit achieved through discipline, focus and clear-eyed decisions.  In this conversation, Matthew shares:  Why he sees bootstrapping as risk management, not risk taking The importance of paying yourself from day one and how that shaped InsTech’s trajectory Lessons from testing (and killing) products that didn’t deliver Why hiring curious, early-career talent paid off What most founders get wrong about option schemes and equity How to handle financial stress without losing your team or your sanity Why co-founders matter and why investors aren’t a substitute The hard truth about building the business your customers want, not just the one you’d love to run  If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn.  Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning.

    38 min
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Bringing together the best technology and innovation for insurance and risk management together from around the world. Podcast hosted by Matthew Grant.

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