Rising Edge joins Kennedys’ consortium to develop Reputation Advisor

Contact: Karim Derrick

25-10-22

We are pleased to have added Rising Edge, the London-based directors’ and officers’ (D&O) specialist insurance underwriting agency to our Reputation Advisor consortium.

We are leading the consortium to develop Reputation Advisor – a tool which will be able to identify and assess firms’ reputational risk, particularly in respect of ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues. Once complete, Reputation Advisor will add to the extensive suite of features that make up the Kennedys IQ platform.

Since launching in May 2021, with the aim of bringing fresh underwriting thinking and capacity to the existing directors’ and officers’ (D&O) market, Rising Edge has already become an influential player in the D&O insurance market.

Since their launch, Rising Edge have impressed with their fresh thinking and approach to the technology in the D&O space.

Karim Derrick, Product and Innovation Director

The MGA joins Kennedys IQ, the University of Manchester, University College London, Cicero/amo and RiskCovered Limited as consortium members and will bring the company’s insight of the underwriting process to the group.

The £1.2m project, which is part-funded by £783k from Innovate UK’s Smart Grants scheme, will analyse content – from corporate documents to publicly available information – and create a real-time reputation index of risk relating to an organisation’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. Specifically, Reputation Advisor will be able to assist with underwriting policies, calculating premiums and predicting potential triggers for claims.

Karim Derrick, head of product and innovation director at Kennedys IQ, says: “Since their launch, Rising Edge have impressed with their fresh thinking and approach to the technology in the D&O space. The Rising Edge team is already feeding into the development of Reputation Adviser through their focused insight of the underwriting process. We’re delighted to have them on board.”

“The project isn’t due to conclude until the end of 2023, however our early development work has already demonstrated why this tool could revolutionise the insurance market and help businesses have far greater awareness of their reputational risks in respect of ESG.”  

Philippe Gouraud, Chief Executive Officer of Rising Edge, says: “We are delighted to have been approached by such a prestigious organisation as Kennedys to join its Reputation Advisor consortium. Clients need to understand the impact ESG can have on their reputation, and subsequently on their liability exposures, in particular for their directors. Further, the data the project will provide will be invaluable to D&O insurance underwriters for both their risk selection and their risk pricing needs. As a fast-growing innovative business, the involvement in this project is another great step in our technology and data journey.”

Reputation Advisor is our fifth initiative to be awarded funding from Innovate UK. Previous projects include the firm’s work with the University of Manchester to develop fraud prevention software, and with University College London (UCL) to build an emerging risk analysis tool for insurers.

The firm recently added a trio of industry innovation hires to its team with the arrival of Melanie Milliner from AXA UK, Joe Cunningham from DARAG Group, and Alissa Harger from Linklaters.

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