IQUW celebrates successful first year

01 Jul 2022 by Jonathan Watson


Property, commercial, and speciality (re)insurer IQUW today celebrates a full year in business, marking rapid growth and achievements, including the rebuild of Lloyd’s syndicate 1856 and merging of Agora Syndicate Holdings, the launch of a new suite of (re)insurance products, development of a new strategic intelligence strategy, underpinned by a wealth of diverse talent.


“IQUW was established to embrace the future of underwriting, blending the best of human expertise with intelligent use of data automation to underwrite risks,” said IQUW Group Chief Executive Officer Peter Bilsby. “We have assembled an impressive roster of talent, across London and Bermuda, to build our specialty offering – creating a team that blends the most recent thinking with decades of experience, across the spheres of underwriting, finance, operations and investing in the re/insurance sector.


“We are incredibly thankful for the continued support given by our partners, clients, brokers, syndicate capital partners, and the wider community. With our growing talent, our intelligent platform and increasing product and services portfolio, we are very much looking forward to what the next year will bring,” Bilsby added.


IQUW was established on July 1, 2021, backed by experienced private-equity firms Aquiline and Abry Partners, launching with a clean balance sheet and a focus on a global portfolio, diversified by geography and segment. Lines of business include cargo, crisis management, political risk, cyber, property delegated authority, property D&F, directors & officers, energy, financial institutions, marine & energy, aviation, political violence & terrorism, war, property treaty (US and international), and specialty reinsurance.


Below are some of the milestones achieved in IQUW’s first year:

  • July 2021: ERS rebrands its specialty (re)insurance operations from Arcus to IQUW. The syndicate adds new lines of business to the property, energy and cyber risks it previously wrote, and now writes political violence, terror and war, cargo, professional lines, marine and energy liability, specialty reinsurance and property direct and facultative.
  • July 2021: Arcus 1856 rebranded as IQUW – a (re)insurance company that aims to develop a new way to combine data, intelligent automation and human expertise to make fast, accurate decisions
  • July 2021: Stephen Young is appointed as the new Bermuda CEO, and acts as Head of Reinsurance as well as leading the Bermuda operation for IQUW.
  • October 2021: IQUW acquires Agora Syndicate Holdings, along with its subsidiaries, which accelerates IQUW’s growth strategy, consolidates its position as a material Lloyd’s carrier and complements its existing property and reinsurance portfolio.
  • IQUW’s diversification push has been underpinned by a succession of best-in-class underwriters, including Head of Property Simon Jackson; Head of Energy, Marine & Aviation Phil Furlong, Head of Professional Lines Gary Lill, and Head of Specialty Chris Wilkinson
  • November 2021: Dave Morris joins IQUW as Group Chief Underwriting Officer.
  • February 2022: Steve Tebbutt announced as IQUW Active Underwriter, alongside existing ERS Active Underwriter, Martin Hall.
  • IQUW executes strategy and turns syndicate to profit with 93% COR
  • IQUW pilots an innovative workbench within its Marine division to combine human expertise with cutting edge technology to provide accurate, fast decisions for brokers.


“We’re very proud of what IQUW has accomplished in just our first year, but we still have much to achieve as we harness technology to operate an underwriting bionic model, ingesting data automatically and reducing manual tasks to allow underwriters to make informed, data-driven decisions. I am very grateful for the support we have had from our partners throughout our first year. That support has meant that we have come a long way in the last 12 months, but we have really only just begun.”