By Ryan Hewlett

July 21 - (The Insurer) - Alchemy Underwriting has formally launched its proprietary digital underwriting portal with North American SME property as its debut class.

CEO Richard Housley told The Insurer the launch will enhance its long-standing relationships with distribution partners and capacity providers.

Already live with several MGA and distribution partners, the platform has been developed by delegated underwriting specialists Daniel Wright and Steven Mitchell.

The duo, who previously led SME-focused DTW Syndicate 1991 at Lloyd's, were brought in last year to develop Alchemy’s digital underwriting platform and build a portal solution that manages new business, renewals and endorsements for MGAs.

Speaking exclusively to The Insurer, Housley acknowledged that the MGA market had become “saturated” with portals but said Alchemy had been motivated to develop a solution that aligned with its principles on technical underwriting, exposure management and data-driven pricing.

“We launched Alchemy as a traditional, relationship-driven business that is laser-focused on high-quality underwriting,” said Housley. “We have stayed true to that vision as we have grown but I’ve always felt that technology would be a crucial enabler to generate efficiencies, enhance our processes and to access better distribution.

“MGA portals have become a bit of a dirty subject, but Dan and Steve are best-in-class and have proven to be consistently ahead of the curve over the past 25 years. What we are unveiling has been built with a focus on the entire underwriting value chain to make that point of sale more efficient.”

Alongside its initial focus on North American SME property – a class that has traditionally been accessed in London via binding authorities – the platform is also targeting a wider product line roll-out through 2025 and beyond.

Speaking alongside Housley, Wright said the platform had completed a succesful pilot with a large national MGA and a regional “family firm”, with Alchemy now ready to engage more broadly with the wider market.

“We've built something that works for both the national firm and the family enterprise. That's very difficult to do,” Wright said. “Owing to the design limitations of established underwriting portals there can be a justified pushback to portal-based capacity, particularly from larger national firms, which have developed front-end solutions that call for an API which adds our pricing to their existing capacity options.

"Our design takes another, more efficient approach that builds on the underwriting expertise at our carefully selected distribution partners. Early feedback from our pilot MGAs and distribution partners has been overwhelmingly positive. Underwriters related strongly to our approach and ambition; we have delivered on our aim of providing a very controlled but efficient alternative to the traditional Lloyd’s delegated authority model.”

Wright explained that the portal enables efficient virtual trading and includes a direct messaging function so that communication channels remain open and transparent.

He said Alchemy has developed a method of clearance that is “fair for all parties” but which also keeps the MGA informed. Construction, occupancy, protection and exposure information is concise, and the data is then extracted in real time. He said even the policy parameters stage has been “over-engineered”, enabling complete customisation for each risk. Users are then able to see Alchemy’s view on pricing and risk quality before the quote and bind stage.

“We've structured workflows so that information and data transfer takes seconds. At the same time there’s complete clarity on the risk, the price, who the surplus line producer is and what is being produced and when,” he said. “There's flexibility for that MGA to build a policy that will work for the consumer, which must always be front and centre in SME business.”

Housley described Alchemy, launched in late 2022, as a “virtual carrier”, meaning that it operates with the same underwriting and claims standards as a carrier while at the same time providing its capacity providers with solutions that they cannot develop themselves.

Mitchell said this philosophy had played a key role in the development of the portal.

“We're not looking for this to replace the underwriter and replace distribution. This is about getting greater levels of high-quality and usable data which generates less cost and which spawns better underwriting and customer outcomes,” said Mitchell.

“Ease of use is key, and we've come out with a portal that fulfils that brief and applies to the market. It fixes the challenges that many other portals have not been able to fix and gives us a competitive edge for our markets.”

Housley, Wright and Mitchell all stressed that the portal would continue to evolve and grow with new classes and features to be rolled out over time.

“It's going to be an evolution. Technology remains at the forefront of our thinking and it's getting cheaper, faster and better. It's incredible what we're going to be able to do in the next couple of years,” Mitchell added. “We built our first version of this system, and it is the foundations on which we will continue to build. What this will look like in five years will be just unrecognisable to what it’s going to look like today.”

Supported by Fortegra capacity, Alchemy began writing property business in December 2022 and has since reached more than $200 million in gross written premium after launching into classes including professional indemnity, energy and marine.

The MGA also has backing from hybrid fronting carrier Bridgehaven and Lloyd’s syndicates.