“Over the past six years, Descartes has established itself as the leading parametric insurance business for climate-related risks, remaining true to our scientific approach to risk transfer.”Tanguy Touffut, CEO and co-founder
PARIS: Descartes Underwriting, a major player in corporate parametric insurance for climate and emerging risks, today announces a strategic investment by Battery Ventures, a global technology-focused investment firm. The transaction, executed at a premium to Descartes’ most recent valuation (Series B), enables Battery to join the company’s shareholder base while all existing investors retain a large majority of their holdings.
Following the transaction, San Francisco-based Marcus Ryu, Partner at Battery Ventures, will join Descartes as a board observer.
Ryu is the former CEO and co-founder of Guidewire Software, a $20 billion company providing cloud-based core systems and analytics for the P&C insurance industry.
“Over the past six years, Descartes has established itself as the leading parametric insurance business for climate-related risks, remaining true to our scientific approach to risk transfer. As we scale globally to address the widening protection gap around natural disasters, we’re thrilled to welcome Marcus — one of the world’s most accomplished Insurtech entrepreneurs — whose experience and vision will be invaluable as we execute our ambitious roadmap,” said Tanguy Touffut, CEO and co-founder.
“Battery’s investment is a major endorsement of our mission and a strong signal of our commitment to the North American market, already our largest market”, Touffut continued.
Marcus Ryu, partner at Battery Ventures and former CEO and co-founder of Guidewire Software said: “Over twenty years of serving the global P&C insurance industry informs my keen interest in applying technology to address the enormous underinsurance gap. Parametric insurance is one of — if not the — most promising approaches to transfer risk efficiently, and like many industry participants I believe it will continue to grow in importance and adoption.
The team at Descartes Underwriting is uniquely credentialed in this domain, and I am very impressed with the market and thought leadership position they have built with brokers, capacity partners and insureds in a short period.”
Descartes operates in over 60 countries through 19 offices across four continents, serving a diverse client base with 230 professionals.
In 2024, the company generated over $200 million in gross written premium.