Cytora is developing an AI-powered insurance technology platform enabling insurers to underwrite more accurately, reduce frictional costs and achieve profitable growth.

Cambridge Innovation Capital plc (CIC), the venture capital investor enabling visionaries to build global, category-leading companies in the Cambridge ecosystem, has participated in a £25 million Series B financing round in Cytora, a spin-out from the University of Cambridge that has developed an artificial intelligence-powered solution for commercial insurance underwriting. The transaction was led by European VC firm EQT Ventures.

Cytora’s underwriting platform applies Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing techniques to public and proprietary data sets, including property construction features, company financials and local weather. The platform combines these datasets with an insurance company’s internal data to better predict risk, therefore ensuring more accurate risk pricing.

The InsurTech space has drawn considerable investment interest in recent years as traditional banks, insurance companies and pension funds have started to adopt AI technologies to reduce operating expenditure and increase performance. Cytora stands out from the crowd by using a data-driven approach to develop enhanced risk insights that have proven efficacy in loss prevention.” Carol Cheung, Senior Associate

Richard Hartley, co-founder and CEO of Cytora, said: “With this investment, we’re looking forward to widening our impact and helping accelerate the insurance industry’s digital transformation.”

Cytora is working with global insurance companies including QBE, AXA XL, Starr and challenger re/insurer Convex Group, to inject efficiency and accuracy into their underwriting processes. The company will use the funding to enlarge the team in order to expand its product offering and to move into new geographies.