Centinel pivots to parametric insurance for utility interruptions

As it gets closer to bringing its product to market, insurtech startup Centinel has narrowed its focus from its original plans to cover four types of events down to just one, utility interruptions for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

Over the recent Fourth of July weekend, one of Centinel’s investors gave founder and CEO Soton Rosanwo an example showing the pressing need to cover SMEs for utility interruptions.

Soton Rosanwo, founder and CEO, Centinel Insurance

“He went to a Baskin Robbins to get ice cream, and they only had one flavor,” Rosanwo recalled. “He’s like, ‘What is going on here? Where’s all the ice cream?’ They said, ‘Well, we had a power outage and lost over $5,000 worth of products.'” It turned out that the store wasn’t covered and only got $800 in compensation from its electric utility.

Before establishing Centinel in early 2022, founder and CEO Soton Rosanwo surveyed insurance customers, finding that individuals who lacked adequate coverage for hard to insure risks would be willing to pay for parametric insurance. More recently, another survey, this time of more than 800 businesses including 600 SMEs, found that 70% of their decision makers were interested in coverage for power outages longer than 72 hours.

Centinel’s new focus follows the three elements Rosanwo emphasizes for the company: capacity, distribution and product. The company’s capacity has been increasing through participation in more startup forums that led to $5 million in new funding, she said. These include the Creative Destruction Lab’s risk management track begun in November and completed last month at its Toronto event, TechStars Boulder which ran from March through June, and BrokerTec Ventures Accelerator Cohort in April. 

These events connected Centinel with insurance brokerage clients who signed or are expected to sign letters of intent, according to Rosanwo. “The door opened to be able to talk to different reinsurers and specialty carriers, as well as brokers and carriers,” she said. “From TechStars in particular, some of their tactics and approaches around marketing or go-to-market have also been really helpful in thinking through different strategies that Centinel can deploy.”

With client signings, Centinel expects to begin pilots with users by the end of 2024, according to Rosanwo, which would begin generating revenue for the company. Centinel has added developers to build a most viable product (MVP), working with data scientists and actuaries on its risk modeling. 

Centinel’s distribution plan for SMEs uses a B2B2B model, with 30 companies in its pipeline – 20 of which are in the insurance vertical. Having accomplished its MVP, Centinel can optimize its product to fit these distribution partners, Rosanwo said.