The world's first online marketplace for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) insurance for small and mid-size businesses (SMEs) transactions is now open for business in Australia.
Named io.insure, this online M&A insurance marketplace 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 that works with major insurers, including Allianz, Markel, Zurich, HDI Global Specialty, Antares, and Ping An.
It was designed to bridge the significant risk protection gap in the niche M&A segment for SMEs, addressing the scarcity of insurance capacity, and inefficient processes within the overall M&A insurance market, which is commonly focused on higher-value transactions. In particular, it will serve as an end-to-end marketplace for the M&A insurance market and fulfil the risk management needs of small business owners, private equity and venture capital firms, and corporate M&A dealmakers in the country.
As part of its launch in the Australian market, io.insure's SME M&A Insurance (SEMI) product will initially provide insurance solutions for smaller M&A transactions with values up to $50 million, progressing to larger transactions over time.
The io.insure platform will launch globally but will be piloted in the Australian market. It will then expand to North America, the UK, Europe, and Asia and scale into new verticals, such as financial lines, parametric, and sustainable insurance.
Working with marketplace partners globally, io.insure will provide innovative 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 and technology, and distribution. It can also be white-labelled by select strategic insurers and distribution partners.
Commenting on the online M&A insurance marketplace, McDermott, co-founder and executive partner at io.insure, said: “As we look towards the future, there is exciting potential for other new specialty business lines that io.insure will tap into globally, and we look forward to announcing these in due course.”
Rogers, io.insure co-founder and executive partner, added: “Leveraging our industry-leading underwriting expertise and capacity, our proprietary data and technology capabilities, and partnership distribution, io.insure will provide an essential marketplace and related services for industry partners to access, analyse, and protect the underserved M&A and specialty risk needs of small and medium-sized businesses in Australia and beyond.”
