Eloff & Karim launch Marrikel reinsurance broking platform

Frederik Eloff and James Karim, who previously worked together at a Deutsche Bank start-up ILS fund management unit, have together launched insurtech start-up Marrikel, which positions itself as a reinsurance broking platform.

Marrikel joins a plethora of reinsurance and risk transfer placement systems that have launched in recent years leveraging in-house developed technology to make the business of trading in reinsurance risks more simple and efficient.

Today, Marrikel has announced the launch of a web-based reinsurance placement platform and said that it has also signed its first broker licensee.

Marrikel’s platform aims to support the entire reinsurance transaction-flow, from marketing through to digital execution.

The company boasts the ability to support “complex auctions” using in-house developed technology, as well as firm-order-terms, private deals and indicative bidding.

Auctions can be customised with buyer/seller constraints, or Dutch placement options are possible, the company said.

The system also supports access controls, an NDA workflow, integrated data rooms for transaction documentation, entity management and offline quoting.

Marrikel says that its platform fully audits the placement process and related workflow, which is managed across transactions within broker team structures. A dashboard view allows for easy updates on the status of any placements and Marrikel says this allows for entire portfolios to be managed on one screen.

Frederik Eloff, founding partner of Marrikel, said, “We are delighted to be launching our platform. We enable brokers of all sizes to efficiently manage the most complex transactions, while enabling real-time collaboration within teams and across businesses.”

James Karim, co-founder, also said, “We are looking forward to working with our first licensee and other brokers to deliver the highest level of service to their clients. Marrikel frees brokers up to focus on their advisory relationships, where they add greatest value.”

Frederik Eloff and James Karim launched Marrikel in 2018. Eloff comes from an insurance-linked securities (ILS) background, having worked at Securis Investment Partners before his stint at Deutsche Bank where he met Karim who had previously worked in reinsurance broking at Guy Carpenter and Aon.

The pair worked at Deutsche Bank in the start-up ILS fund management unit for the Insurance Opportunities Fund, a strategy that never really gained significant size or traction under the investment banks operation.

The market is awash with reinsurance placement technology in recent years, with the success of start-ups coming down to the true sophistication (or otherwise) of the technology and whether they can add significant value, in terms of efficiency to the chain, to the benefit of the risk transfer buyer.

It will be interesting to see how Marrikel fares as it navigates the tricky and notoriously ripe for disruption area of reinsurance broker placements.