American Financial Group Acquires InsurTech Verikai in $120M Deal

January 20, 2022

American Financial Group (AFG) acquired Verikai Inc., a machine learning and artificial intelligence company that utilizes a predictive risk tool for assessing insurance risk, effective December 2021.

Verikai will continue to be led by President and CEO Jeff Chen. AFG paid approximately $120 million in cash at closing.

AFG CEO Carl H. Lindner III said in a company press release that the company believes artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to have a significant impact on the insurance industry in the future, and the company sees Verikai as “a thoughtful and effective leader in the use of these technologies.”

“We have been very selective and intentional with our investments in the InsurTech space and have enjoyed great success with several strategic relationships,” he said. “Although we don’t often invest directly in InsurTech entities, we found Verikai to be an outstanding opportunity.”

Verikai will continue to operate as a standalone company to serve its insurance clients. Great American Insurance Group, through which AFG operates, will also benefit from Verikai’s predictive risk tool and Marketplace platform as it enters the medical stop loss business, with a primary focus on small and underserved risks, the press release said.

Verikai was founded in 2018 and is based in San Francisco, California. It leverages alternative data and machine learning, focusing primarily on underwriting efficiency by providing insurance companies with risk reports to optimize the underwriting process.

American Financial Group is an insurance holding company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Through the operations of Great American Insurance Group, AFG is engaged primarily in property/casualty insurance, focusing on specialized commercial products for businesses. Great American Insurance Group’s roots go back to 1872 with the founding of its flagship company, Great American Insurance Company.

Source: American Financial Group