In an effort to feature more insurtechs Digital Insurance has modified the format of our Meet the insurtech series.
Responses have been lightly edited.
What is the company's origin story?
Before Ric, the co-founders were co-workers who were purchasing homes at the same time. The conversation kept shifting to the lack of good catastrophe coverage options on the market, and they started discussing what alternatives might look like and how they would like to access those options.
From there, they started developing models, programs and internet protocol to address market needs.
When was it founded and/or when was the product launched?
Ric was founded in 2023. The first product will be rainfall flood, which is slated to go live in 2025.
Can you tell me about the founders/founding team?
Ric was founded by Nakita Devlin and her behind-the-scenes co-founder. Both bring knowledge of the catastrophic insurance space and technology expertise, plus a vision for the future of the market.
In 2017, Nakita helped build a core technology platform and formulated its go-to-market strategies for a Willis Towers Watson-funded startup. That's where she met her co-founder. The two recognized the combined value of Nakita's insurance broker background and experience working on multi-million-dollar programs and her co-founder's background in catastrophe models and underwriting.
Having spent decades in conversation with individuals who had experienced catastrophic loss events, Nakita saw the opportunity to leverage technology and parametric insurance structures to create helpful insurance products that could address an unmet need in the market. This vision drove the creation of Ric.
Ric's advisory board includes Charlie Sidoti, executive director of InnSure; Christopher Lowell, managing director of InnSure and co-founder of GreenieRE; Stephent Brandt, chief development officer of InnSure; and Fielding (Fid) Norton, co-founder of FutureProof Technologies.
Any meaning behind the company name?
The name Ric came from the word parametric since we specialize in parametric insurance offerings.
That's not the whole story though. We always have customers in mind – even when naming the company, and we know that after a disaster, they're looking for someone to have their back. Ric's recognizable human-sounding name gives us a bit of that personal element we strive to achieve with our customers.
How many employees?
Ric currently has two employees. We're small by design; the team structure enables the company to be as efficient as possible and keep operating expenses down, which ultimately makes it possible to maintain affordable product prices.
Where is the company based?
Ric is based in New York City, but we're working with communities from coast to coast on parametric solutions, including the city of Norfolk, Virginia.
What pain points is the technology trying to solve?
Consumers know that flooding resulting from extreme weather, like hurricanes and heavy rainfall, poses a great risk to their physical assets. They're aware of the risks; they just don't have access to affordable insurance options to address them.
As a climate-focused MGA, Ric employs a micro parametric insurance distribution model that is designed to put immediate capital into consumers' hands right after a qualifying extreme weather event, empowering them to manage loss on their own terms. Through flexible and affordable micro products, Ric fosters a more comprehensive recovery framework that infuses liquidity into communities after a disaster and strengthens policyholder resilience against future events.
For example, the trigger point for the rainfall flood policy is a set number of inches of rain in a predetermined window. If an event occurs that meets that threshold, the policyholder automatically gets a disbursement. Similarly, with the extreme heat product, which we have partnered with InsurTech NY on, if a covered area meets a set temperature threshold, then policyholders automatically receive a predetermined payout.
These micro-payouts — usually between $5,000 and $10,000 — get cash directly into a policyholder's bank account within 48 hours so they can figure out how to manage the next few months. In this way, Ric's products address a crucial pain point: the fact that traditional insurance products only focus on replacing lost assets in the long-term instead of considering how policyholders are impacted in the short-term.
Ric's model is also responsive to consumer needs. Unlike the specific set of replacement costs covered under most insurance policies, Ric's funds can be used as the policyholder sees fit, including covering short-term accommodation costs, paying for weather-related medical expenses, and more.
In addition to faster, easier payments and flexibility with how policyholders can use the funds, Ric offers an alternative to the cumbersome traditional application process. Instead of requiring pages and pages of documents, Ric just needs an address, and we'll use that to calculate the appropriate extreme weather trigger using our proprietary model.
Ric is also working to address employer pain points related to catastrophe risk. Many employers are being told they need to create rainy day funds for employees who are experiencing extreme weather events. Ric's parametric model provides fast cash to reduce workforce disruption. As an employee benefit, Ric policies tie into operational priorities and provide organizations the opportunity to solve known problems with an insurance solution.
How is the company funded?
Ric is funded through a mixture of grants and venture capital. We work with – and in some cases, are partially backed by – stakeholders across the board, from local communities directly impacted by extreme weather disasters to organizations who help fund innovative solutions that address or mitigate those disasters.
What's ahead?
Our goal is to provide consumers with affordable insurance that helps them get back on their feet immediately after a disaster. One of the ways we can do that is through the group distribution model.
Most of the time, group catastrophe insurance is associated with the communities that people live in. As Ric continues to work with Norfolk, Virginia on community-based insurance solutions, we're also working to make group catastrophe insurance available to employers and employees in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
When extreme weather hits, it's not just homeowners and renters who are impacted, but local businesses as well. According to the
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Beyond the expansion of distribution models, Ric is keenly aware that it's not enough to offer a single peril solution. Extreme heat and extreme rainfall cycles are intrinsically linked. Fortifying a community or workforce against climate change means addressing both needs. The extreme heat product is slated for launch in 2026.
