XL Catlin will use Slice Labs’ cloud-based, pay-per-use platform for a new cyber insurance product.

The insurer and reinsurer plans to offer the new coverage for U.S. small and medium-sized business via the Slice Insurance Cloud Services (ICS) platform. Slice said that XL Catlin is the third large carrier to use the platform since it began in January to start licensing the technology for outside insurers and startups. Legal & General in the UK and The Co-operators Group in Canada are the other two.

Slice Labs, a New York-based startup that developed on-demand, pay-per-use insurance for homeshare companies and others, also began earlier this year to license its platform overseas, starting with the Legal & General partnership.

The cloud-based platform technology is the same Slice uses for its own insurance, the company has said previously. It is digital and handles options including distribution, and comes with a carrier license and the capacity to take risk. It is also fully embeddable, via advance programming interface (API), and has functionality that covers pricing, rating, licensing, real-time and automated underwriting, servicing and capacity.

John Coletti, XL Catlin’s chief underwriting officer of Cyber & Technology in North America, said that the on-demand cyber product is meant to help small businesses who don’t have dedicated resources that larger companies have. The Slice partnership, he added, offered an ideal way to give them a way to easily buy the cyber coverage they need.

“We’ve partnered with Slice to transform cyber insurance – making it easy to buy and simple to understand for them – with the ultimate goal of protecting SMBs from the potentially devastating impact of a cyber-attack,” Coletti said in prepared remarks.

The ICS platform lets XL Catlin to take a more holistic and advanced approach to cyber protection, according to the partnership announcement. The insurer’s new cyber product will include services designed to help clients best prepare for cyberattacks, and the coverage – subscription and usage-based – will be available on demand for small and medium sized businesses. As well, artificial intelligence will be in play to deliver real-time alerts to customers and enable them to better manage their risk postures.

Source: Slice Labs/XL Catlin