B3i, the enterprise blockchain company owned by numerous insurers, processed 30 reinsurance contracts for January renewals. However, this wasn’t a switch over to the new platform. Instead, in a softly-softly approach, the automated placement process ran in parallel or as a recreation.
Nine insurers, four brokerage firms and eight reinsurers were involved in the placement of the Catastrophe Excess of Loss (XoL) reinsurance treaties.
“B3i’s platform shows what’s possible for greatly easing the placement process for all parties involved, and it’s very promising,” said Allianz Re’s Silvio Tschudi.
XoL was the first solution planned from the start, but the company is now developing other types of reinsurance, software modules for accounting and claims, as well as commercial insurance. However, B3i intends to be a platform, much like the iOS or Android of the insurance industry, with others building applications on top. It has competition from the RiskStream Alliance, which has similar aims.
While B3i as a company is two years old, the project first started as a consortium back in October 2016. In June of 2018 the technology was switched from Hyperledger Fabric to R3’s Corda.
At incorporation, the 13 founding insurers and reinsurers contributed $6.8 million. Last year saw another funding round in excess of $20 million and another three insurers joined, Mapfre Re, Deutsche Rück and VIG R.
2019 was a busy year for B3i. In addition to the $20 million raised, four additional investors joined, Japan’s SBI, China Pacific Insurance (CPIC), IRB Brasil Re and Africa Re. John Carolin took over as CEO, and the XoL product and the network went live in preparation for the year-end renewals.
B3i is planning another funding round this year.
“We invite all participants in the insurance industry to work with B3i to improve risk transfer using distributed ledger technology – whether by investing and joining our governance, by using the platform for transactions, or by partnering to develop new solutions,” said John Carolin, CEO of B3i.
Current B3i shareholders: Achmea, Aegon, Africa Re, Ageas, Allianz, AXA, China Pacific Insurance, Deutsche Rück, Generali, Hannover Re, IRB Brasil Re, Liberty Mutual, Mapfre Re, Munich Re, SBI Group, SCOR, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine, VIG Re, and Zurich Insurance Group.
