Insurtech Start-Up Breach Launches Carrier, Raises Investment Round Led by RW3 and LightShed Ventures

Jun 16, 2023 | Business

Breach, an insurtech start-up that is building insurance technology and products for the growing cryptocurrency market, has been approved by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) to launch a new class IIGB insurer. Breach was created with a mission to make crypto safer by creating net new insurance capacity and innovative insurance products. Today’s announcement is a foundational block in Breach’s missions to build a healthier ecosystem for all stakeholders.

The new carrier will allow Breach to underwrite emerging crypto risks as a primary insurer, with a key focus on the development of bespoke embedded products tailor made for crypto native technologies. There is a significant underwriting and actuarial gap for custom insurance solutions that the company is solving for with its expanded offering. The new offerings will be available through Breach’s proprietary insurtech platform via simple APIs that can help partners embed regulated insurance into their technology in a few weeks instead of several months.

The IIGB license is a special innovation class license designed for underwriting crypto risks. With the full-stack carrier, Breach has obtained regulatory authority to operate natively in both crypto and fiat with the ability to denominate policies, receive payments, and pay claims all in crypto. These capabilities are unique as only a handful of insurers currently have the license and also important to the crypto space as risks can now be underwritten natively in the same asset.

In support of Breach’s expansion as a global insurer, the company also raised a fresh round of funding led by RW3 and LightShed Ventures, with participation from Raptor, Foundation Capital, Road Capital, Republic Capital, and Alumni Ventures. The capital raised will be used to launch the new Bermuda insurance carrier and to continue growing its countrywide licensed MGA in the US. Breach is also expanding its proprietary insurtech platform for use with upcoming commercial-grade products.

Joe Bruzzesi, General Partner at RW3 and ex-BitGo head of Americas, was the deal lead for RW3 in the round. “As an investor and entrepreneur with more than six years of experience in the crypto industry, I have observed a growing demand for insurance. In my past role, where I helped develop one of the leading crypto custodians, I saw firsthand the imbalance between the supply and demand for insurance. I am confident that the Breach team has the necessary combination of experience and innovation to address one of the industry’s most significant challenges, and I am thrilled to support their mission,” said Joe Bruzzesi.

“The crypto industry has been grappling with rising regulatory scrutiny while looking for ways to gain credibility with both investors and the public. We view insurance as one of the first steps in professionalizing and safeguarding the industry, and we believe the Breach team has the experience, approach, and timing to the market to bring effective coverage to both individuals and businesses,” said LightShed Ventures General Partner/Co-Founder, Jamie Seltzer.

Breach is an insurtech with an exclusive focus on crypto risks. Although unregulated decentralized insurance protocols have gained popularity in the crypto space, Breach has instead placed an emphasis on developing creative and regulated insurance solutions by utilizing their deep crypto and insurance industry expertise.

Breach CEO, Eyhab Aejaz, said in a statement: “The launch of our insurance carrier is a major milestone not only for Breach, but also the crypto industry. With the capability to iterate on products, pricing, and the delivery of our products, we aim to unlock significant potential that the crypto market has been held back from.

I am ecstatic to have tier-one investors join our cap table as they have immediately jumped in and rolled up their sleeves to support us in our mission to bring scalable, regulated insurance to the crypto industry. Over the last two years we have continued to build on our underwriting capabilities and have drastically expanded our proprietary, best-in-class crypto hack event database, which will help us further refine pricing and further develop our modeling.”

For more information on Breach and its industry-leading services, visit https://breachinsured.com.

Contact Information:
JJ Nelson
Public Relations Lead
jnelson@interknow.com
3106258816


Topic: Press release summary

Hong Kong – Enhancement and Start-up Grant Scheme for Self-financing Post-secondary Education opens for application

Dec 21, 2022 | International

Enhancement and Start-up Grant Scheme for Self-financing Post-secondary Education opens for application

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     The Education Bureau (EDB) today (December 21) announced that the 2022/23 round of applications under the Enhancement and Start-up Grant Scheme for Self-financing Post-secondary Education is open for application from today to April 13, 2023. 
 
     The Scheme aims to provide financial support for eligible self-financing post-secondary education institutions to develop and enhance programmes that meet market needs but require high start-up costs, and help alleviate the institutions’ need to fully recover the set-up costs from tuition fees, thus relieving the financial burden on students. It also supports institutions to better develop their own strengths and niche areas, strengthening strategic co-ordination between institutions. 
 
     Eligible institutions are as follows:
 
a) Hong Kong Metropolitan University; 

b) approved post-secondary colleges under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap. 320); and 

c) post-secondary institutions registered under the Education Ordinance (Cap. 279). 

     The Scheme subsidises full-time locally accredited local self-financing sub-degree and undergraduate (including top-up degree) programmes, covering both the development of new programmes and the enhancement of existing ones. With a view to enhancing the teaching and learning in designated academic areas, it supports projects of the following nature:
 
a) significant development/enhancement of programme curriculum and pedagogies; 

b) recruitment/professional development of faculty members and teaching staff; 

c) procurement/upgrade of market-standard equipment/facilities to meet academic and professional requirements; 

d) provision of new/improvement to existing discipline-specific campus facilities/infrastructure; and 

e) other relevant discipline-specific expenditure areas that are in alignment with the objective of the scheme. 

     Funding for each proposal will generally be subject to a cap of $42 million. The Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education will give advice to the Secretary for Education regarding the comparative merits of the proposals.
 
     In the 2021/22 round of applications, four out of 19 applications were approved with a total grant of about $117 million. They covered the allied health, art technology, construction management and supply chain management sectors, which are conducive to catering for the keen manpower demand of the relevant industries. Details of the projects are as follows:
 

Institution Project Approved grant
(in million dollars)
Hong Kong Metropolitan University The Upgrade of Teaching and Learning Facilities and Resources to Support Creative Arts Programmes in Interactive Music and Virtual Production Technology 33.3
Hong Kong Metropolitan University Establishment of Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Construction Management and Surveying 40.6
The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong Teaching Smart Decision Analytics for Supply Chain and Information Management Programme Enhancement 17.1
Tung Wah College Establishment of a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Medical Imaging Programme 26.5

 
     The EDB will maintain close liaison with relevant institutions to make the best use of the resources of the Scheme and launch the relevant programmes as soon as practicable.
 
     Further details of the Scheme and the approved projects can be found at the designated website (www.cspe.edu.hk/en/esgs.html).

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh announces financial support of Rs 3.29 crores to M/s Kritsnam Technologies, a Start-up Company, incubated at IIT Kanpur to develop smart water management technologies

Aug 18, 2022 | Business


Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh announced financial support of Rs. 3.29 crores to M/s Kritsnam Technologies, a Start-up Company, incubated at IIT Kanpur to develop smart water management technologies. He said, the technology, initially focused on commercial users, can be a game changer in effectively monitoring & controlling the ground water exploitation across country in future.


An MoU was signed in the presence of Dr Jitendra Singh between the Technology Development Board (TDB) under Department of Science and Technology and M/s Kritsnam Technologies Private Limited, Ranchi, Jharkhand for production & commercialization of Dhaara Smart Flow Meter.





The Minister was apprised that the start-up is developing ‘Dhaara Smart Flowmeter’ – an integrated system for online monitoring using two beam ultrasonic flowmeters that is designed to track the water distribution in real-time for applications such as drinking water supply, ground water extraction, industrial water usage and precision irrigation. The device collects data through sensors, stores it in the device, and transmits to the online cloud servers and thereafter the data transmitted to servers is analysed and displayed in the dashboard. This unique solution is a combination of hardware & software for flow measurement and water management respectively.


Dr Jitendra Singh said that Dhaara Smart Flow Meter will greatly benefit Prime Minister Modi’s Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal), a Rs.6,000 crore Central Sector Scheme, for sustainable management of ground water resources with community participation. The scheme is being implemented in 80 water stressed districts and 8,565 Gram Panchayats of seven States viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh from 01.04.2020 for a period of five years. He said, Dhaara Smart Flow Meter can also help bulk water consumers to budget their water usage and empower them to understand their patterns, points of inefficiencies and help them to build strong strategies for reducing water wastage.


The Dhaara Smart Flow Meter is battery operated and does not require external power and the hardware architecture is based on the internet of things (IoT) communication circuits which is patented in India. In addition, it complies with ISO and Central Ground Water Authority standards. The water usage data is automatically recorded in an online logbook through telemetry via 4G/2G. The built-in telemetry and battery-operated capabilities make it easy for users to monitor their water consumption virtually anywhere (even when the power is out). The product being developed initially aims at commercial users like hotels, hospitals, malls, IT parks, schools, colleges and industrial users (food products, packaged drinking water, pharmaceuticals, paper & pulp etc.).


It may be recalled that the Central Groundwater Authority issued guidelines under which every commercial ground water user must install a smart water meter and pay yearly bills. All the project proponents/users drawing ground water and seeking/having NOC shall have to mandatorily install tamper-proof digital water flow meters with telemetry on all the ground water abstraction structures within their premises.


Ground Water levels in various parts of the country are declining because of continuous withdrawal due to reasons such as increased demand of fresh water for various uses, vagaries of rainfall, increase in population, industrialization and urbanization etc. As per the assessment of Dynamic Ground Water Resources (2017) carried out by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in collaboration with States/UTs, out of the total 6,881 assessment units (Block/ Taluks/ Mandals/ watersheds/ Firkas) in the country, 1,186 units in 17 States/UTs have been categorized as ‘over-exploited’ where ‘Annual Ground Water Extraction’ is more than ‘Annual Extractable Ground Water Resource’.


Shri Rajesh Kumar Pathak, IP&TAFS, Secretary, TDB said, “Water is essential to all humankind & the ground water is dominant source of drinking water but the pace at which the ground water is depleting is alarming. Govt of India is taking urgent steps needed to replenish the ground water level through water harvesting technologies as well as planned & controlled ground water extraction. ‘Dhaara Smart Flow Meter’ from startup ‘Kritsnam’ would be a great addition to this endeavour. The smart meter has been designed in such a way that, it can perform ground water management with real time processing, even without electricity”.


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Start-up success for bp’s Manuel project at Na Kika platform in Gulf of Mexico

Jun 24, 2021 | Business

bp today announced a significant milestone with the safe start-up of the Manuel project in the US Gulf of Mexico, the fourth of five major projects expected to be delivered globally in 2021. Manuel includes a new subsea production system for two new wells tied into the Na Kika platform. The wells are expected to boost gross platform production by an estimated 20,100 barrels of oil equivant a day (boe/d).

“Manuel is exactly the type of high-value project that is critical to growing our business here in the Gulf of Mexico. bp’s focused and resilient hydrocarbons business is a key pillar of our strategy. This start-up is another example of our team’s commitment to safe and reliable operations.” Starlee Sykes, bp senior vice president Gulf of Mexico and Canada

Starlee Sykes, bp senior vice president Gulf of Mexico and Canada said: “Manuel is exactly the type of high-value project that is critical to growing our business here in the Gulf of Mexico. bp’s focused and resilient hydrocarbons business is a key pillar of our strategy. This start-up is another example of our team’s commitment to safe and reliable operations.”

The bp-operated wells, drilled to a depth of approximately 21,000 feet, are located southeast of the Na Kika platform, approximately 140 miles off the coast of New Orleans.  bp and Shell each hold a 50 percent working interest in the Manuel development.

Ewan Drummond, bp senior vice president of projects, production and operations said: “Our disciplined investment in Manuel is part of our target to add 900,000 boe/d of production from new projects by the end of 2021. The safe production of resilient hydrocarbons in the basins we know best is core to advancing our strategy to transform into an integrated energy company.”

About bp

bp’s ambition is to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero. bp is America’s largest energy investor since 2005, investing more than $130 billion in the economy and supporting more than 125,000 additional jobs through its business activities. For more information on bp in the US, visit www.bp.com/us.

Notes to editors

  • Manuel is located on Mississippi Canyon block 520, east of the bp-operated Na Kika platform in 6,625 feet of water. 
  • bp is a leading producer in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, operating four production platforms – Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog and Na Kika – with a fifth platform, Argos, expected to come online in 2022. 
  • bp anticipates growth in its production in the US Gulf of Mexico to more than 400,000 boe/d by the mid-2020s.

Cautionary statement

In order to utilize the ’safe harbor’ provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the ’PSLRA’), bp is providing the following cautionary statement. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements – that is, statements related to future, not past events and circumstances – which may relate to one or more of the financial conditions, results of operations and businesses of bp and certain of the plans and objectives of bp with respect to these items. These statements are generally, but not always, identified by the use of words such as ’will’, ’expects’, ’is expected to’, ’aims’, ’should’, ’may’, ’objective’, ’is likely to’, ’intends’, ’believes’, ’anticipates’, ’plans’, ’we see’ or similar expressions. Actual results may differ from those expressed in such statements, depending on a variety of factors including the risk factors set forth in our most recent Annual Report and Form 20-F under “Risk factors” and in any of our more recent public reports.

This document contains references to non-proved resources and production outlooks based on non-proved resources that the SEC’s rules prohibit us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures in our Form 20-F, SEC File No. 1-06262.

Our most recent Annual Report and Form 20-F and other period filings are available on our website at www.bp.com,or can be obtained from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330 or on its website at www.sec.gov.