World’s Fastest Growing Global Insurance Broker and Artificial Intelligence Leader Combine to Deploy Insurtech at Scale
In a transformational move, Acrisure today announced that it has acquired artificial intelligence (AI) leader Tulco LLC’s insurance practice to bring best-in-class data science, AI, and machine learning capabilities to the insurance brokerage industry. This transaction enables true deployment of “insurtech at scale” as it combines the global distribution power of Acrisure, the fastest growing broker in insurance industry history, with the world-class, proven AI expertise of Tulco. The deal, which was conducted as a stock-for-stock trade resulting in Tulco becoming a significant minority shareholder in Acrisure was announced by Greg Williams, Co-Founder, CEO and President of Acrisure and Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Tulco.
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“Businesses that succeed in the medium to long term must be nimble, data-rich and digitally oriented,” said Williams. “The transaction with Thomas Tull and the Tulco team accelerates our ability to do all the above.”
The announcement builds on a successful year-long partnership between Acrisure and Tulco. In 2019, the two firms formed Altway Insurance, a fully-AI backed brokerage focused initially on individual health benefits. Since its launch, Altway has seen rapid success with 24 consecutive weeks of 10% or greater week-over-week growth.
Continued Williams: “We’ve worked with the Tulco team for almost a year and our vision for Acrisure and the industry are completely aligned. Tulco’s world-class talent and ability to apply AI and intelligent automation is immeasurable as it relates to meeting the needs of our clients and transforming our company. We’re very pleased to be working with the entire Tulco team as we take this transformational step with like-minded entrepreneurs. I’m excited about what we will create together.”
At Acrisure, Mr. Tull will be actively involved in the strategic direction of the company as the Chairman of the new “Acrisure Technology Group” and will assist in attracting and retaining other key talent as the company further transforms into the insurance brokerage industry’s leading data-rich and technology-enabled company.
“A significant amount of capital has been deployed into insurtech, but we have a truly unique opportunity for scaled transformation as we layer AI into current processes,” said Tull. “Partnering with Acrisure over the last year and implementing the tech has given me the confidence and excitement that we will do things that are highly impactful. I look forward to helping Greg build the most forward leaning technology and advanced insurance brokerage in the world.”
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Existing Tulco board members Jim Breyer (Founder & CEO, Breyer Capital), A.G. Lafley (former Chairman, CEO & President, Procter & Gamble) and Anthony Foxx (Chief Policy Officer, Lyft and former U.S. Transportation Secretary under President Obama), will serve as advisors to Acrisure. Other key leaders include Brendan McCord who will become President of the Acrisure Technology Group and Marty Willhite who will serve as a strategic advisor.
“The insurance sector is ripe for transformation and combining Tulco’s market-proven AI and data science products with Acrisure will deliver insurtech at scale,” said Breyer. “Thomas has a keen ability to fuse forward-thinking, entrepreneurial ideas with commercially-driven businesses. Combining this capability with Greg and the Acrisure team creates an opportunity to influence and shape an important and significant marketplace.”
With the new technology infrastructure, Acrisure will fully harness AI capabilities to rapidly innovate the product development and insurance sales and marketing process across its portfolio of Agency Partners, a global network of commercial property and casualty, life and employee benefits brokerages. From $650 million in annual revenue in 2017 to more than $2 billion today, Acrisure has seen record growth, completing over 500 acquisitions the past several years. Now a top 10 global broker, Acrisure is majority-owned by employees and has locations across six countries.
Acrisure has previously invested in robust data sets and internal analytics to better understand the risk needs of its clients and to accelerate the organic growth of the company. The infusion of Tulco AI into the Acrisure network will accelerate sales development and risk intelligence across the entire portfolio, which is heavily focused on the U.S. small and medium commercial market.
