Sweet software is Marmalade, not Jaam
Developing a client base, executing a successful capital raise and increasing interest internationally — it’s been a good few months for Cactus Ltd, the Bermudian company behind Marmalade, the deal pricing and data capture system.
Marmalade, a web-based SaaS platform that’s custom-built for casualty & specialty underwriters, is so named because it’s not JAAM (just another actuarial model).
It is available on a subscription basis and now has Bermudian-based Ark, Amwins and Helix as its clients.
Cactus’s pitch for the product is: “We build the data asset your actuaries dream of in a system your underwriters love.”
A pair of international trips taken by Cactus co-founders James Robinson and Mark Higgins this year has proved to be beneficial to the company.
At the annual meeting of RIMS, the risk management society, in San Francisco, they arranged to sit in on some meetings between brokers and carriers to observe the process.
Mr Robinson said: “It was very obvious there is a big opportunity to help insureds to understand better what data the actual carriers want.”
He added: “It’s actually much easier to meet people from Bermuda at RIMS than it would be in Bermuda.”
Soon afterwards, Mr Robinson and Mr Higgins were off to London, having been invited to participate in the ten-week Lloyd’s Lab accelerator programme that brings together insurtechs, insurers and brokers to test out new, innovative solutions.
Mr Robinson hailed the “fantastic” mentors at Lloyd’s, making special mention of pricing team head Laurence Loughnane.
He said their participation “helped us to validate that the approach we’re taking fits with what Lloyd’s wants carriers to do. Lloyd’s wants to see every deal is going through a process — that carriers have captured all the data and are using it to price the deal”.
Mr Robinson added: “Lloyd’s Lab was huge to raise our profile. We have been approached by companies in multiple countries — the US, France, UK and Luxembourg.
“We came back with a pipeline of prospects and we are keeping the conversation going.”
He added: “We have some solid prospects in London that I think we can do some work with. We are very keen to do something in London to confirm that we have global scope.”
Mr Robinson said Cactus has raised about $300,000, all of it in Bermuda, to support the company’s ambitious growth plans for Marmalade both on the island and internationally.
He added: “We have infinite runway now — we can keep our burn below what we take in.”
Marmalade was developed on the island in the first cohort of the InnoFund Innovation Incubator and in the fourth cohort of the Ignite Bermuda entrepreneurial accelerator.
Mr Robinson said Cactus is grateful for the support of the Bermuda Business Development Agency.
BDA chairman Stephen Weinstein and CEO David Hart toured Lloyd’s Lab while Cactus was participating in the programme along with Bermudian-based Kettle, the reinsurance managing general agent.
Lloyd’s Lab: the accelerator programme that brings together insurtechs, insurers and brokers to test out new, innovative solutions (Photograph supplied)
Mr Robinson has been invited to participate in Broker Day at Lloyd’s on September 7, where three participants in this summer’s Lloyd’s Lab programme will speak about their experience.
Before that, he will be using the trip to London to market Marmalade.
Mr Robinson said: “If anyone knows any underwriters in London, I’d be happy to take them for a coffee, lunch or what have you.”
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