Startup spotlight: Evertas pioneers cryptoasset insurance
Positioning itself as the world’s first cryptoasset insurance firm, Evertas (formerly BlockRe) is a pioneering new venture in the InsurTech sector.
With a team comprised of individuals from market-leading organisations - including Ty R. Sagalow (CIO and Co-Founder of Lemonade) - the company’s skillset features some of the most sophisticated experience regarding blockchain and crypto in the sector.
Liaising closely with global insurance providers, Evertas seeks broad and inclusive crypto-related coverage for its clients, with contingencies for theft, errors and omissions, kidnap and ransom and property coverage amongst the solutions on offer.
In addition, the company offers a complete range of services:
- Risk: compliance and audit + risk assessment and management
- Investigations: incident management, asset recovery, investigations and litigation support
- Intelligence: brand protection and competitive intelligence services
Raising seed funds
It was recently reported that Evertas has managed to raise USD$2.8mn in a seed funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital Assets. The round was also joined by Kailesh Ventures, RenGen, Vy Capital and others.
According to Evertas’ spokesman Phil Anderson, the company will use the investment to finalise its underwriting, formalise its status as a managing general agent (MGA) and further develop its claims forensics capabilities.
"We are currently acting as a wholesaler and are looking to have our own capacity in the next several months," said Anderson.
"As a wholesaler, we are working to help place coverages for a variety of covers (hot, cold, warm, directors and officers (D&O), property, errors and omissions (E&O), etc. We also act as a specialised underwriter for cryptoasset related risks.
"When we are an MGA, we intend to offer coverages around cryptoasset theft (hot, cold, warm) and will continue to assist with other coverages (e.g. D&O, property, E&O, etc)," he added.
Developing the use of blockchain
Citing the evidence of its own survey, Evertas posits that the relative lack of development of blockchain technology and cryptoassets results from an insurance paucity for them:
“55% of respondents feel companies are holding back on new blockchain initiatives and cryptoassets because they cannot get insurance cover.”
The company’s overall mission, then, can be summed up as redressing this balance and pioneering new ways of allowing the democratising and transparency-enhancing aspects of these two technologies to flourish.
