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2026 August 17 - 23
Weekly News Roundup

Top InsurTech Headlines from August 17–23, 2026

Curated by InsurTech NY • Sources: official company announcements, industry research and reporting
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7 Top Stories
$575M At-Bay Deal
47.2% Auto Policies Shopped
Acquisition

Munich Re Buys At-Bay for $575M, Far Below Its 2021 Valuation

Munich Re agreed to acquire cyber insurance company At-Bay for approximately $575 million, bringing the business under HSB, Munich Re’s specialty insurance and technology-focused subsidiary.

At-Bay has grown into a meaningful player in U.S. cyber insurance, writing approximately $278 million in gross premium in 2025. The transaction is especially notable when compared with At-Bay’s roughly $1.35 billion valuation during its 2021 Series D.

Source: ReutersAt-Bay

M&A

Willis Re Makes a Major U.S. Push With BMS Re Acquisition

Willis Re agreed to acquire BMS Group’s U.S. reinsurance division, including BMS Intermediaries, BMS Capital Advisory and the associated U.S. reinsurance team based in London.

The transaction gives Willis Re a significantly larger operational presence in the U.S. reinsurance market and expands its ability to serve carriers, MGAs and specialty programs.

Source: Weil

Lloyd’s

Envelop Risk Graduates to a Full Lloyd’s Syndicate

Cyber reinsurance specialist Envelop Risk received in-principle approval to transition its existing Special Purpose Arrangement into Envelop Syndicate 1925.

The syndicate is expected to begin underwriting from January 1, 2027. Cyber treaty reinsurance will remain the core focus, while the new structure gives Envelop greater flexibility to expand into additional casualty and specialty lines.

Source: Envelop Risk

Specialty Capacity

Aon Puts $200 Million Behind Faster M&A Insurance

Aon launched Sidecar X with up to $200 million in dedicated capacity for representations and warranties and tax insurance.

The platform uses pre-agreed underwriting and claims frameworks to streamline transactional insurance placements and includes a stated 10% premium discount for clients using the facility.

Source: Aon / Nasdaq

Insurance Operations

Applied Systems Wants to Turn the Insurance Inbox Into a Quoting Engine

Applied Systems launched an agentic email-to-quote submission channel powered by Cytora.

The technology converts unstructured broker emails into structured submissions and can return a quote, decline or referral through the same email thread. Applied says the process can reduce response times from days to minutes.

Source: Applied Systems

Industry Report

Nearly Half of U.S. Auto Policies Were Shopped in the Past Year

LexisNexis Risk Solutions reported that U.S. auto insurance shopping remained near historic highs during the second quarter of 2026.

Approximately 47.2% of policies in force had been shopped at least once during the previous 12 months. Shopping growth slowed to 1.4% year over year, while new-policy growth reached 3.3%.

The report also found that the exclusive-agent channel outpaced direct and independent-agent channels for the first time since Q2 2022.

Source: LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Feature

DisasterProof Asks: What If the Claim Never Happens?

The new DisasterProof documentary and podcast series explores a bigger question facing property insurance: what happens when the focus shifts from paying for disasters to preventing losses before they happen?

In its episode featuring Stand Insurance CEO Dan Preston, the series visits a Stand-insured California home to examine fire-resilient design and the use of 3D modeling to identify the specific points where a property is most likely to fail during a wildfire.

The conversation also looks at Stand’s expansion into hurricane-exposed markets and the broader possibility of using insurance as an incentive for resilience rather than simply a payout after catastrophe.

Watch: DisasterProof on YouTube

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