McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS), which provides insurers with geospatial data and analysis to accelerate industry response to catastrophic events, driving disaster relief and economic recovery, has secured a strategic investment from Maven Capital Partners (Maven), a leading private equity firm focused on investing in fast growth businesses in the UK.

The funding will enable MIS to grow its UK market share, increase penetration into the US and European markets, and extend the capabilities of MIS’ proprietary geospatial platform, the Global Events Observer (GEO), which hosts a vast range of data and imagery from satellite, aerial, and ground-based sources.

Currently, actionable intelligence is delivered via use of real-time information, machine learning, and expert analysis to enable exposure managers, claims teams, and loss adjusters to make faster, data-driven decisions. With this investment, MIS plans to test and integrate new technologies to provide clients with further insights for pricing future risk exposure, by leveraging an archive of historical event intelligence. The aim is for GEO to become a valued tool in the underwriting space, emphasising MIS’ mission to support all functions of the industry through one data-driven platform.

Dean Cox, Investment Director at Maven, said: “The geospatial analytics and catastrophe insurance markets are forecast to continue double digit growth per annum over the next 5 to 10 years, driven in large part by the severe global weather events that are happening more often. Consequently, insurers are having to take more steps to defend against a rising tide of natural catastrophe losses and are turning to technology solutions to anticipate the level of claims more accurately to significantly reduce claim handling costs.

“MIS have built a strong pipeline of over 100 opportunities both in Europe and the US, and we believe it has the potential to become a global market leader in a sector that is having to quickly adapt its approach to risk management. We are looking forward to working with Forbes and the wider team on this exciting growth phase for the business.”

Forbes McKenzie, Founder and CEO at MIS, added: “We are thrilled to be joining Maven’s impressive track record of investments. As catastrophic events across the globe are becoming increasingly common and more severe, insurers are pressured to act more rapidly and effectively than ever before. This investment is an opportunity to reaffirm our mission of delivering accelerated and reliable intelligence for insurers to confidently make decisions in these critical times.

“Maven’s support and belief in our purpose will allow us to further develop GEO to better meet the requirements of a constantly developing industry. Through growing our unique team of geospatial and insurance specialists, we look forward to fortifying our presence in the UK and expanding to access international opportunities across Europe and the US.”