17: ILS fund managers - start-up thinking on the challenges faced

With the news that Integral ILS Ltd. is launching as a new Bermuda based ILS fund manager, I thought it would be interesting to look at the ILS start-up opportunity through the Integral ILS lens. Starting up is never easy, no matter the expertise of those involved, the quality of the provenance, or the blue-chip quality of the partners involved. In the case of Integral ILS, they have all three. The expertise of Managing Partners Lowther and Zeng. The provenance of their respective track records, history in ILS and of working together. The blue-chip quality of stakeholders AmWINS and TransRe. But Integral ILS so far doesn't have capital and at this time when institutional investors remain spooked by the pandemic volatility and often focused elsewhere, it may not be the easiest thing to get started, let alone to gain meaningful scale. Of course nothing is every simple or guaranteed in the world of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and while Integral ILS will face the same challenges as others trying to raise capital at this time, the start-up has a lot going for it in the platform they are creating and the strategy they intend on following. So it's going to be interesting to watch their progress and to see how receptive investors are to this latest ILS start-up offering.

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