Several well-known insurance industry executives have joined forces to launch Swiftly, a global technology company, with operations in Bermuda and the United States.

The new company will be focused on driving down insurance costs while improving customer experience through an innovative technology ecosystem.

Swiftly is led by Michael Lyons, founder and former chief executive officer of Weston Insurance, with more than 25 years of experience in re/insurance. He has partnered with Dmitry Mnushkin, Swiftly’s chief technology officer, winner of Bermuda’s 2019 Technology Innovation Award. Heather Kitson is Swiftly’s chief operating officer and general counsel and Joelle Turner is Swiftly’s vice-president and controller.

“We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new technology company, Swiftly, providing cost-efficient and customer-friendly support for both life and annuity and property and casualty insurance,” Mr Lyons said. “Our team has created an ecosystem of secure, cloud-based proprietary technologies that support our clients in seamlessly operating and administering their insurance business with next-generation service efficiencies.”

End-to-end technologies include policy administration, pricing and rating systems, enterprise risk management, transaction-level reconciliation and clearing house technology. There will also be call-centre operations including call centre as a service, and Level 3 conversational artificial intelligence.

“The inspiration for Swiftly came after repeatedly seeing gaps in insurance industry infrastructure,” Mr Lyons said. “My previous business mantra was, ‘Don’t build it if you can buy it, and don’t buy it if you can rent it.’ However, it’s increasingly clear to insurance operators that for several critical and highly technical operational areas of insurance, there are no good rentable nor purchasable options available.”

He said Level 3 conversational AI is a very recent innovation, while certain middleware utilised by Swiftly to operationalise its proprietary technology did not exist commercially until as recently as last year.

According to Mr Mnushkin, what distinguishes Swiftly from competing insurtech platforms is its numerous interoperable technologies and advanced processes.

“We offer full operational support behind our technologies, which means if a client wishes to access our entire technology ecosystem plus support, they have what’s akin to an ‘MGA-in-a-box’,” he said. “This gives insurers and MGAs the ability to launch or expand at a significantly reduced headcount, while maintaining the highest service levels.”

Ms Kitson said Swiftly’s clients are able to greatly improve annualised ROI and net operating margins, while achieving higher customer service levels as a result of extensive real-time management tools, customer self-help tools and repetitive process automations.

“Our clients also have the option to execute underwriting submission binds, all the way through secure payment, without the necessity of underwriter intervention,” she said. “Our clients achieve greater control of, and insights into, their customer data.”

Mr Mnushkin said Swiftly presents a strong value proposition to existing insurers looking to expand or new entrants looking to launch more swiftly and efficiently.

See swiftly.com.co or e-mail info@swiftly.com.co.