Bermudian-headquartered insurer Kettle has appointed Isaac Espinoza as chief executive.

The company said he would join cofounder and chief technology officer, Son Le, in leading the business.

Kettle is an artificial intelligence-enabled insurance and reinsurance provider for commercial property owners in areas affected by catastrophic climate events.

Backed by Acrew Capital, True Ventures, Valor Venture Partners, Lower Carbon Capital, Anthemis and other investors, Kettle said it had grown its premium base by more than three times in the past year.

Mr Espinoza joins Kettle after nearly 20 years working in insurance, reinsurance, and insurtech, most recently as SVP at car insurance innovator Root, where he managed reinsurance efforts, as well as strategy, corporate actuarial and venture functions.

Before Root, Mr Espinoza was an investor and operator at Greenlight Re, supporting numerous insurtech start-ups and working on the actuarial, underwriting and innovation teams. He began his insurance career as an actuary at Fireman’s Fund in California.

Mr Espinoza said: “I’m excited to continue my career as an operator and leader, working on some of the most important existential questions for the insurance industry and for our planet.

“Kettle has a head-start on modelling emerging risks and providing insurance options in a market where protection is harder and harder to come by.”

Kettle said it outperformed the industry by using proprietary machine learning algorithms, which integrate billions of lines of weather, fuel, satellite, anthropogenic, and ground truth data.

Mr Le said: “We’re at an inflection point where our unique models can offer protection to customers currently underserved by incumbent providers. Isaac’s arrival is exciting for Kettle and our future in the industry.”

Lauren Kolodny, partner at Acrew Capital, which led Kettle’s $25 million Series A round in 2021, said: “Isaac’s arrival is an exciting evolution for Kettle as it expands into new lines and new states. This year has been an important growth year. We’re thrilled to welcome Isaac’s leadership.”