Three, two, one, go! Are Insurance Companies Ready for Space? | Insurance business America
“We are, yes.”
Insurance News
By Daniel Wood
“We received some submissions from companies involved in asteroid mining,” said Joseph Ziolkowski (pictured above). “It sounds crazy, but huge amounts of money have been invested in companies developing technologies for mining asteroids.”
It sounded really crazy, so Insurance Business asked the CEO of Relm Insurance if he meant that his company, headquartered in Bermuda, currently offers insurance for space projects.
“We are, yes,” he said.
Ziolkowski said there are companies that have worked on space projects for more than a decade and managed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.
“What’s really interesting is that as these companies raise more capital, the need for insurance will only become more relevant,” he said. “That’s where we come in.”
Realm also offers covers for space station equipment.
“There is a company that is working on producing technology or equipment that will work on a space station, and for that particular company, we offer them product liability insurance,” Ziolkowski said
IB asked whether these space projects were predominantly based in the USA.
“It’s definitely not just a U.S. initiative,” he said. “Especially now that space is really being privatized, you’re seeing activity that is certainly more global.”
Space projects, digital assets and alternative therapies
According to its website, Relm Insurance is a specialty insurer serving emerging industries including the space economy, digital assets and Web3, artificial intelligence (AI), fintech “and beyond.”
“We really wanted to launch Relm to support companies that are doing really innovative things,” Ziolkowski said.
The company was founded in 2019 and has 50 employees, he said.
“We are expanding our core team in Bermuda, but also have employees in other jurisdictions with varying roles in the US, London, one in Europe and now two in Dubai,” the CEO said.
Ziolkowski said his firm’s underwriting focus is digital assets and alternative therapeutics.
“We have now expanded coverage to companies operating in these sectors in more than 37 countries around the world,” he said.
Human innovation: a source of hope for the future?
IB pointed out that the world is currently experiencing dark times: climate change and conflict threaten to destroy life as we know it. By working with cutting-edge industries to manage risk and seek insurance coverage, does Ziolkowski provide hope for the future?
“It does,” he said. “But I don’t want to overstate the importance of what we’re doing about things like climate change.”
However, he said his company’s vision is to make innovation resilient.
“Our mission is to truly leverage our capabilities to help solve complex risks in innovative industries,” Ziolkowski said. “When I look at the promise of companies to develop products, services and solutions leveraging blockchain technology, I see accessibility, cost reductions, transparency and improvements in various aspects of really important industries such as financial services, logistics, real estate and healthcare – “That is not the case.” “No longer exists today.”
He said what he sees in these industries is promising.
“When I look at what’s happening with alternative therapeutics, I see clear plans and solutions for using important psychedelic compounds to treat things that really aren’t being treated well today,” Ziolkowski said.
Other innovative industries, he said, have the potential to have a “huge impact” on the way we live, trade and travel.
“Look at what’s happening in the space economy,” Tsiolkowski said. “There are companies involved in space tourism, space mining, agriculture, space manufacturing, space defense proposals and strategies.”
He said governments around the world are considering new international regulatory frameworks in anticipation of these developments.
“This whole privatized space economy is about to peak and reach its full potential,” Ziolkowski said. “Who knows where it will ultimately lead? But it will lead to rapid advances and changes in the way we perceive the limits of our capabilities on a planet like Earth.”
New risks and opportunities are coming
He said all of these projects would need to raise capital, find insurance coverage and secure contracts with traditional manufacturing and technology companies.
“There will be cyber risks that never really needed to be considered, and there will be property damage, for example from new forms of wind storms, that just didn’t really need to be considered on planet Earth,” Ziolkowski said.
He said risk management, mitigation and transfer “will be a fundamental part of scaling these sectors.”
“I think it’s a really exciting opportunity for us to really put our capabilities behind these companies,” Ziolkowski said.
Are you an insurance professional involved in cutting-edge, innovative projects? Please tell us about it below.
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2024-05-16 19:13:38
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