Since launching its Risk Exchange platform in 2023, Accelerant Holdings has positioned itself as a conduit between institutional capital and specialty insurance risk, offering what CEO Jeff Radke describes as one of the few opportunities for investors to gain “a fair slice of the whole book of business.”In a recent interview with Artemis, Radke outlined how the Risk Exchange, initially unveiled as part of Accelerant’s broader capital strategy, continues to evolve as a core mechanism for connecting investor capital with underwriting-led portfolios, while maintaining transparency and balance in risk sharing.Unlike traditional models that cede only volatile layers, Accelerant’s Risk Exchange is built on pro-rata participation, allowing capital providers access to the full range of risks across its member MGAs.“From the very beginning, Accelerant had this notion of the risk exchange where instead of acting like normal insurance companies, what we were going to be is this platform where capital can access the risk.

From the very beginning that was the case,” Radke told Artemis.Accelerant’s Capital Markets team was deliberately built to support this model, with a deep bench of structuring and insurance-linked securities (ILS) experience.“So, we built our team around that theory.

So, speaking for myself, I’ve been involved in a number of insurance securitizations, a number of cat bonds and a number of cat swaps,” Radke explained.He pointed to the backgrounds of CFO Jay Green, formerly a senior figure on Goldman Sachs’ insurance-linked securities team, and Capital Markets lead Peter Shen, as key to Accelerant’s capital strategy.“Why the Capital Markets team? Why did we build it that way? Because we believe that institutional investors participate in innovative ways, whether they be sidecars, which aren’t very innovative, they’re pretty inefficient, but we’re working on much better ways to do it,” Radke said.

He continued: “London Bridge is probably an improvement over a standard side car.But we’ve done a number of sidecars.We think London Bridge is in our future, and we’re working on other structures where institutional capital can come in and access that zero beta underwriting risk that is so valuable.

“And I guess what I would say is, Accelerant is one of the few spots, the Risk Exchange is one of the few places where the institutional investor is getting a fair slice of the whole book of business.” What sets Accelerant apart, Radke argues, is its commitment to fairness and transparency in how risk is shared.“We’re not trying to cut off our volatility and just send the excess of loss exposure out,” he said.“We’re not trying to just cede our most volatile business.

What we’ve said to all of our risk capital partners, but especially the institutional investors, is you’re going to be offered an opportunity to participate across the whole book of business.A fair slice.“And I don’t know of another place where institutional investors can get a fair slice of this low volatility speciality business.

And that’s what makes it so unique, and that’s what makes it so valuable to the institutional investors,” he continued.To further facilitate institutional investor participation, , a $175 million reinsurance sidecar designed to provide multi-year risk capital to its underwriting-led specialist members.Flywheel Re represents Accelerant’s first move to bring capital markets into its capacity provision, with institutional investors backing the sidecar.

“Flywheel is, in the vernacular, one of the sidecar reinsurance companies that we’ve created,” Radke explained.Concluding: “Institutional investors can’t reinsure directly of course because they don’t have a license.So, what you have to do is you have to create a reinsurance company that can ensure various insurance companies, and you fund that with those institutional investors’ monthly funds.

So, the capital from institutional investors comes into Flywheel, and then Flywheel supports the Risk Exchange.” Find details of numerous reinsurance sidecar investments and transactions in our directory of ..All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance can be accessed online.Our can be subscribed to using the typical podcast services providers, including Apple, Google, Spotify and more.