Slaughter and May advised Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities business on its investment in Ki, the first fully digital and algorithmically-driven Lloyd’s syndicate. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited and funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities have committed $500m of capital to fund Ki’s expansion as it launches in Q4 2020, enabling the business to grow rapidly to significant scale.
Ki is a newly formed follow-only digital business which will write its first risk incepting in January 2021. It will underwrite using an algorithm-driven approach and offer instant follow capacity through its proprietary digital platform. Ki will write a broad range of specialty business following selected leaders in the Lloyd’s market, including Brit. The creation of Ki was first announced in May 2020. Ki will aim to significantly reduce the amount of time taken for brokers to place their follow capacity. Ki’s algorithm, developed with support from University College London, will evaluate Lloyd’s policies and automatically quote for business through an always available digital platform, built by Google Cloud and accessed directly by brokers.