- Cowbell Cyber, a focused on AI-powered cyber insurance for small to mid-sized enterprises, announced recently it raised $3.3 million in seed funding
Cowbell Cyber — a startup focused on AI-powered cyber insurance for small to mid-sized enterprises — recently introduced the industry’s first continuous underwriting platform that aligns insurable threats to risk exposures in order to identify cyber risks and proactively mitigate losses in the aftermath of cyberattacks. And the company also secured $3.3 million in seed funding from leading insurance, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence venture funds, including ManchesterStory Group, Holmes Murphy & Associates, Tri-Valley Ventures and the Global Insurance Accelerator.
This round of funding will be used to help accelerate the go-to-market and development of its continuous risk assessment, underwriting, and comprehensive cyber liability insurance platform.
“With the increasing magnitude and frequency of cyber attacks, organizations not only need to focus on prevention and detection but also on managing risk mitigation in the aftermath of attacks,” said Cowbell Cyber founder and CEO Jack Kudale. “Cowbell Cyber has demystified enterprise-specific insurance coverage through the development of an early warning system that enables companies to gain complete insight into risk exposure and take control of loss mitigation while increasing insurability.”
The cyber insurance market saw a major boom over the last few years as high-profile breaches making weekly headlines and is forecasted to reach $14 billion globally by 2022. But the lack of observability into the real risk profile of cyber insurance has challenged insurance distribution, underwriting, and claims.
Cowbell Cyber utilizes an inside-out approach to offer ongoing, dynamic, automated, insurable cyber risk assessments thus providing customers with real-time insights into insurable risks. And Cowbell Cyber’s flagship continuous risk-ratings factor called Cowbell Factor enables customized protection and recommendations to provide a policy that matches the customers’ needs as they evolve. The coverage is specifically designed for cyber risk exposure — not entwined with other lines of coverage.
“Cyber insurance is one of the most technology savvy lines of insurance products. However, it is underwritten once a year, whereas risk is changing by the second,” added David Miles, the Co-founder and Managing Partner of ManchesterStory Group. “Cowbell Cyber’s platform has been developed to help enterprises better protect their businesses by offering standalone, automated and continuous underwriting capabilities. We are pleased to support Cowbell’s commitment to bridging the global insurability gap in cybersecurity and have great confidence in the founding team’s experience and vision.”
Cowbell Cyber was founded by leading minds in cybersecurity, insurance, and engineering. Some of the key members of the executive team include Kudale, Rajeev Gupta (Co-founder and Chief Product Officer), Trent Cooksley (Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer), and Prab Reddy (Co-founder and Vice President of Engineering).
“We are intrigued by the inside-out approach Cowbell Cyber is taking to build their continuous underwriting platform. Cowbell Factor, the continuous risk-ratings factor, not only represents the residual cyber risk in enterprise at a granular level, but also has potential to become a core tenant for use cases such as M&A due diligence, budget planning, and audit committee reporting,” said Michael Badeaux, the Vice President of Information Security at American Equity, a founding investor of the Global Insurance Accelerator. “As we continue to work with the Cowbell team, we are extremely impressed with their ability to expedite this cross-industry innovation, given the widely understood fact that outside-in security risk ratings approaches are falling short to address the cyber insurability gap.”
Cowbell Cyber is planning to initially make its cyber insurance policy called Cowbell Prime available in the State of California for businesses up to $250 million via a retail broker distribution channel during the first quarter of 2020.
“We are looking forward to investing in and working with Cowbell Cyber as they enter the market with this cutting-edge technology,” commented Dan Keough, the Chairman and CEO of Holmes Murphy & Associates. “Our No. 1 priority has always been our clients and ensuring they’re protected. This is especially relevant more than ever with the evolution of cyber risks impacting our clients. As we look to the future of technology and innovation within the industry, we believe Cowbell Cyber will be a thought leader in this specialized area of risk and we’re happy to invest in their efforts.”