Pillar Capital Management gets strategic investment from SageSure

Pillar Capital Management, the Bermuda-based specialist collateralized reinsurance and insurance-linked securities investment fund manager, has secured a new high-profile backer as managing general underwriter SageSure has made a strategic investment in the company.

Pillar Capital Management is one of the leading managers of insurance-linked funds, having been founded in 2008. Today, one of its founding members Stephen Velotti is CEO and Chief Investment Officer of the company.

As of June 30th 2026, the ILS investment manager had around $4.3 billion of assets under management (AUM), placing it among the largest independent managers of ILS investment opportunities in the market.

Prior to this new transaction with SageSure, Pillar was jointly owned by its management team and global reinsurance company TransRe, a Berkshire Hathaway company.

With CEO and CIO Stephen Velotti and COO Tara Railton set to continue leading Pillar Capital, the announcement states that the firm’s management team will “continue to hold a substantial ownership stake in the business”. Which suggests SageSure may have acquired some of the management stake, which could now make TransRe the majority shareholder in Pillar, although we cannot be certain as that detail was not shared.

SageSure is a specialist catastrophe-exposed property managing general underwriter (MGU) and well-known in the ILS market, for its forward-thinking approach to reinsurance capital and risk-sharing, having sponsored numerous catastrophe bonds under Gateway Re, while also sponsoring a number of reinsurance sidecar structures as well.

Now, SageSure has taken a strategic stake in a specialist ILS manager and with this comes alignment and access to capital, still from the ILS market and its investor base, as well as profit potential.

The MGU said that in acquiring a strategic investment stake in Pillar Capital, this “connects SageSure’s underwriting expertise with a broader range of capital sources across the property catastrophe value chain.”

Further explaining that the investment, “adds Pillar’s leading reinsurance risk underwriting capabilities and deep institutional investor relationships to the SageSure platform, expanding SageSure’s capabilities across the property catastrophe value chain and strengthening its ability to connect underwriting expertise with a broader range of capital sources.”

Pillar Capital will remain as an independent franchise, retaining its Bermuda-based team and investment strategy.

But now, this will be augmented by SageSure’s capabilities as well, in terms of risk-level insights, analytics and technology.

In addition, of course, this brings a new and closely-aligned route through which to access new reinsurance investment opportunities for Pillar Capital and its range of ILS fund strategies.

Pillar CEO and CIO Velotti commented, “We are excited to embark on this next chapter with SageSure. While our core strategy, our team, and the way we serve our investor partners will remain unchanged, partnership with SageSure will further enhance our ability to access, evaluate, and manage catastrophe risk and allow us to continue delivering industry-leading results.”

“For nearly two decades, Pillar has built a world-class platform and deep relationships with global institutional investors through a relentless focus on strong technical underwriting and prudent risk management, two principles which are core to our ethos at SageSure,” added Terrence McLean, President and CEO of SageSure. “For those reasons, I believe the two organizations could not be a better fit as partners.”

Howden Capital Markets & Advisory (HCMA) served as the exclusive financial advisor to SageSure on the transaction.

John Stamatis, Co-Head of North America, HCMA, stated, “This transaction is evidence of the growing convergence between traditional underwriting platforms and third-party capital. We have long had deep respect and admiration for both the SageSure and Pillar franchises, and are proud to have played a role in bringing them together.”

SageSure operates across 16 US states, with its insurance products currently protecting nearly 1 million policyholders, and the MGU manages more than $3 billion of inforce premium.

Pillar Capital Management is a multi-strategy ILS investment platform, dynamically allocating third-party institutional investor capital across reinsurance, retrocession, catastrophe bonds, and industry loss warranties (ILWs).

View information on many dedicated ILS fund managers, as well as reinsurers offering ILS style investment opportunities, in our Insurance-Linked Securities Investment Managers & Funds Directory.