Hyperexponential, known as HX, now serves about 60 clients writing over $50bn of premium on its pricing and decision platform, with about 40% of that premium in the US.
Richard Gunn, HX's President and CRO, advises expanding companies to sell through existing global customers' US operations and to build a US team, making HX dual headquartered.
Gunn says HX is moving from growth toward profitability as some insurance markets soften, with its AI agents aimed at helping clients achieve it.
How a London pricing startup learned to sell to American insurers
Hyperexponential, a London-born insurance pricing platform, is scaling in the US by becoming partly American. Following global customers into their US arms got it started, but winning mid-sized US carriers took a local team, American executives and US investors. It is also using AI to run its own business leaner while repositioning around profitability as insurance markets soften.
Takeaways
Expand abroad by following existing customers. Large global insurers already run US operations, so Hyperexponential (HX) entered the US through them and built new capabilities with customers acting as design partners. Gunn found selling to the largest global insurers easier than selling to mid-sized US carriers.
Mid-sized US carriers buy from American-looking vendors. HX had to learn to look and sound American. It grew a US team to about 20 people in twelve months, invested in product marketing and made its executive team half American, becoming dual headquartered between London and the US.
The UK is harder than it looks. An HX investor's portfolio data showed that US companies expanding into Japan succeed more often than those expanding into the UK. Gunn says teams should take that seriously before assuming a shared language makes the transatlantic move easy.
US investors were a deliberate hiring tool. HX brought US-based investors, including Battery Ventures last year, onto its cap table on purpose. The goal was local advice and the ability to compete for top AI talent in the American market.
The platform now prices $50bn of premium. About 60 clients, including Sompo, Unicry, Markel and Bowhead, write over $50bn of premium on HX, with about 40% from the US. HX began in London specialty and E&S, then added admitted lines and mid-market and SME underwriting.
AI is reshaping HX's own go-to-market. HX records and scores sales calls in Gong, uses them for forecasting, and drafted a business value report from the first five hours of prospect conversation using benchmarks across its 60 customers. Gunn expects solutions engineers to cover five or ten clients instead of two or five.
Softening markets shift the pitch to profitability. Speed has become table stakes in insurance software. HX's underwriter survey ranked real-time portfolio view among top data pain points, and Gunn expects HX to talk more about how its AI agents help clients stay profitable.
Where Gunn sees software work heading
Product, design and engineering roles are merging into a single builder role, and sales and customer success jobs will change too.
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