io.insure, the world’s first online mergers and acquisitions (M&A) insurance marketplace for small and medium-sized business (SME) transactions, announced it has launched in Australia.
The io.insure marketplace is designed to bridge the significant risk protection gap in the niche M&A segment for SMEs, where there is a scarcity of insurance capacity and inefficient processes within the overall M&A insurance ecosystem, which is largely focused on higher value transactions.
The platform is phased to launch globally but will initially be piloted in the Australian market. Following the launch in Australia, io.insure will soon be expanded to North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.
Through selective existing and new partnerships with advisors, insurance brokers, accounting firms, corporate financiers and banks, io.insure will serve as an end-to-end marketplace for the M&A insurance ecosystem, which will look to fulfil the risk management needs of small business owners in Australia, private equity and venture capital firms and corporate M&A dealmakers.
io.insure’s Small and Medium Enterprise M&A Insurance (SEMI) product will initially provide insurance solutions for smaller M&A transactions with values of up to A$50 million ($35 million), progressing to larger transactions over time.
Working with marketplace partners globally, io.insure will provide underwriting-as-a-service (UaaS) support for global and local insurers as well as Lloyd’s syndicates, combining M&A and specialist underwriting expertise, data & technology and distribution. io.insure can also be white-labeled by select strategic insurer and distribution partners.
The io.insure platform was created by insurance industry veterans Killian McDermott and David Rogers, as part of the POP Holdings group, a conglomerate for specialist, data & technology-enabled insurance solutions, working with some of the world’s leading insurers including Allianz, Markel, Zurich, HDI Global Specialty, Antares and Ping An. Messrs McDermott and Rogers plan to expand io.insure to new markets as well as scale into new verticals, such as in financial lines, parametric, and sustainable insurance.
There are over 2.3 million SMEs in Australia, comprising 99.8% of all businesses, employing over 70% of the workforce and contributing a third of GDP, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics. A fifth of SME owners in Australia are aged 60 and over, with an increasing number likely to be sold in the next decade, said the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. This represents a significant transition of capital with a sizable opportunity for a new digital insurance ecosystem built by io.insure, the company noted.
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