Ed Gaze, formerly head of innovation at Lloyd’s of London and the head of the Lloyd’s Lab Accelerator programme, has joined UK insurtech Value.Space as an investor and advisor.
The move comes as Value.Space – formerly Sille Space – formally launches in the UK market with a mission to revolutionise how the global insurance market and public sector monitors and protects Critical National Infrastructure.
Value.Space is an insurtech business which uses satellite-based technology to provide risk assessments for infrastructure globally. By using high-tech radar technology from the European Space Agency, it provides millimetre level accuracy assessments of infrastructure, identifying previously undetected deformations which can be signals for potential infrastructure failure. Conducted 100% remotely, x10 faster and x25 more cost effectively than manual inspections, these assessments play a crucial role in helping insurers with their risk assessment of infrastructure sites to inform their underwriting decisions. Value.Space already works with several tier one insurers internationally.
Gaze joins Value.Space at a critical point for the sector. Globally, a large amount of infrastructure (primarily built in the post-war years) has reached ‘alert’ age, meaning an increased likelihood of failure. Simultaneously, the effects of climate change are accelerating the degradation of infrastructure and pushing this brittle infrastructure globally to breaking point.
UN data is already showing the effects of this, as between 2015-2019 there were 170 dam failures globally, which is more than the combined total of dam failures from the entire period 1950-2015. Unless Governments, infrastructure providers and the wider insurance sector consider ways to monitor this at-risk infrastructure on a macro level, they risk sleepwalking into more infrastructure disasters like the Brumadinho dam failure – that can cause hundreds of millions in losses, huge environmental damage, and major loss of life.
Value.Space was a member of Cohort 4 of the Lloyd’s Lab, is a member of industry trade association Insurtech UK and is part of the first cohort of the Department for International Trade’s UK-US Insurtech Corridor, the first ever Financial Services commercial trade partnership launched between the UK and US Governments to support UK insurtechs with their US expansion plans.
Value Space is a UK-based business but also has an office in Tallinn, Estonia. They join the growing list of UK tech unicorns such as Wise and Zego where Estonian nationals have chosen the UK as the launchpad to scale their business globally.
Commenting on his appointment as advisor, Ed Gaze said:
“I first came into contact with Value.Space back when they were called Sille Space, during Cohort 4 of the Lloyd’s Lab. I was really impressed with their value proposition and clearly saw how their solution could have an immediate impact on improving risk assessments for insurers and helping infrastructure providers with their ESG obligations. This became a reality when they continued to work with the Lloyd’s market beyond the conclusion of the cohort.
“Value.Space is a perfect example of how technology can transform the global insurance market and I am excited to support it in its journey to scale up its business in the UK, US and beyond.”
Reijo Pold, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Value Space, added:
“The commercial P&C insurance sector market size in GWP was circa $844.5bn in 2020 and is set to grow significantly in the years ahead as climate change and aging infrastructure collide. We are tackling two global problems that are converging and I am glad that Ed is onboard to help with this from an insurance and ESG perspective, whilst also keeping communities and the environment safe. Ed is well known for his expertise of integrating insurtech solutions into the wider Lloyd’s and global insurance markets so he will be able to bring our technological solution into the mainstream for insurers for their risk assessment and underwriting functions.”
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