Introducing Bluefields, the Next-Gen Platform for Specialty Insurance

From vQuip to Bluefields

In recent years, “specialty” has been among the most promising areas of growth in the insurance industry, as more premiums flow towards underwriters and programs focused on increasingly specific niches and markets. As loss ratios creep higher, insurers are looking for higher and less volatile profits. A decade of insurtech innovation provides underwriters with new approaches for loss control, and the ability to rethink how insurance is written and distributed.

The result has been staggering growth in specialty underwriting: Excess & Specialty premiums clocked double-digit growth for 7 years straight, and their share of total premiums more than doubled over the last decade. A handful of public companies in the specialty insurance space, like Ryan Specialty (NYSE: RYAN) and Kinsale (NYSE: KNSL) have built $10B+ businesses over the past decade riding this secular specialty wave, though these are hardly stocks tracked by VCs.

By 2022, Equal was looking for exceptional founders building venture-scale platforms in this category. When we met Cam Serigne and the team at vQuip, we immediately recognized its potential to reinvent specialty insurance.

The first thing that stood out was Cam’s own background. Cam led the Wake Forest football team as Captain, and was crowned the all-time ACC record holder in receiving yards, touchdowns and receptions by a TE. He was projected to be an early-round NFL draft pick, but injured his foot in one of the last games of his senior season and suffered a tear to his calf shortly thereafter. Ultimately, he went undrafted but still managed a brief stint in the NFL for the Saints and Panthers, before landing at a private equity fund in Charlotte, NC. Cam’s talent, grit, and humility made him a rare find and an obvious founder.

Cam started vQuip after learning about the insurance challenges faced by rental operators while renting a boat with friends one day. Insurance premiums were rising, pressuring operators’ already tight margins, and Cam noticed the rental process was devoid of risk management that might help contain losses and reduce insurance claims. He surmised that enabling common-sense loss control procedures while embedding specialty insurance into the transaction flow might help improve profitability for both insurers and rental operators, while also keeping renters safer.

vQuip’s earliest product in 2022 was a business-in-a-box solution for boat rental operators that included booking, compliance, and risk management. Upon seeing demand for point-of-sale renter liability insurance, the company integrated with bookings platforms to offer an OS for risk management and embedded liability insurance. Since then, the company has rapidly expanded into a fully-integrated specialty insurance platform with remarkable results.

The company validated exceptional profitability (claims that were 80-90% less than industry standards) on the embedded insurance offering, enabling them to obtain capacity from leading insurers and reinsurers. They expanded beyond watersports into other episodic risks, introduced commercial insurance programs for rental operators as an MGA, and built distribution relationships with a leading OEM that was looking for insurance solutions for its network of operators and dealers.

Breaking into specialty insurance in the adventure sports segment was smart: vQuip’s early markets alone represent billions in addressable gross written premium, traditionally have high loss ratios, are not a focus area for legacy carriers, and present compelling (but common sense) opportunities to embed loss control. But even from the early days, it was clear vQuip was building a platform to create and distribute specialty programs well beyond adventure sports. In alignment with previous pieces we’ve written on the profitability of niche markets, Cam wanted to target “blue ocean” segments (those that experienced limited/no competition) with “greenfield” strategies (approaches that had never been attempted before). When it came time to find a name capable of properly conveying the extent of the vision, “Bluefields Specialty” became the obvious choice. Not only does this name highlight the market opportunities the company serves, it also honors Cam’s grandmother, who hailed from Bluefields, Nicaragua.

Equal led vQuip’s seed round in 2022, and we were excited to double down in the Series A alongside our friends at Crosslink and American Family Ventures. We are thrilled to collaborate with leading insurance partners like Swiss Re, Greenlight Re, Trean Insurance Group, and Lloyd’s, as well as advisors from firms including Ridgemont and Acrisure, to provide the industry’s most robust solution for episodic risks. Above all else, we’re honored to work with Cam and Bluefields’ incredible team to help them accomplish their ambitious vision.

Congratulations to Cam and the entire Bluefields team! We’re excited to officially welcome them (after 3 years of patiently keeping our investment quiet!) to the Equal portfolio, and to see what’s ahead for this industry-defining platform!