The CTO of Concirrus turned down Google to join the London firm’s mission of revolutionising the insurance industry.
Vinod Singh began his career as a software developer before transitioning into technical design, architecture and strategy roles, ultimately culminating in technical leadership positions.
On the verge of joining Google in 2016, he decided instead to partner with Andrew Yeoman to co-found Concirrus, star of our InsurTech 50 ranking late last year.
“Joining Concirrus wasn’t just about joining a company; it was about joining a mission,” he explains to BusinessCloud of the decision. “I saw the potential to revolutionise the insurance industry, leveraging technology to create a fairer, more accurate, data-driven approach to risk assessment and risk intelligence.
“The explosion of IoT devices presented a golden opportunity: we could capture unprecedented volumes of behavioural data about insured assets, fundamentally changing how risk is assessed.
“However, the challenge lay in harnessing huge amounts of data effectively. We needed to aggregate, prepare, and extract behavioural factors, feeding them into AI and machine learning algorithms to build dynamic, data-driven pricing models.”
They developed a cloud-based platform, Quest, designed to seamlessly connect various IoT devices and process the vast amounts of data they generate.
“As we applied this platform to a diverse range of business challenges, we gained invaluable experience in handling time-series and geospatial data, as well as connecting disparate data streams to extract contextual insights and predictions using AI and machine learning algorithms,” says Singh.
“Our company name, Concirrus, reflects this background, symbolising the concept of ‘connected clouds’.”
Expansion plans
Concirrus transitioned from a tech platform to an insurance solution provider within three years, initially focusing on the marine sector. It now has plans to expand into other verticals.
“We’re actively expanding beyond marine insurance to become a holistic risk intelligence provider for the entire supply chain insurance coverage,” says Singh. “This vision encompasses industries like cargo, aviation, transportation and potentially more.
“We’ve already made significant progress in this direction. Our existing expertise in data analysis and AI, honed within the marine sector, translates well to other areas with similar risk management needs.
“We’re excited about the potential to contribute to a more resilient and data-driven insurance landscape across multiple industries.”
India
Concirrus recorded a 204.6% increase in revenue in 2023 and moved into profitability in the second half of the year.
Today it employs more than 50 people across bases in the UK and New Delhi in India, where Singh is mostly based. “90% of our engineering happens in India while AI, machine learning and other customer- and market-facing roles are based out of our UK office,” he says.
“Our focus for this year is less on numeric numbers and more on doubling down the impact we deliver to our customers – but we do have a strong strategy to deliver 10x growth in next 3-4 years.”
Singh says securing ninth position on the InsurTech 50 was “truly a source of pride”.
“This acknowledgment not only affirms our confidence in steering the transformation of the insurance sector through our solutions, but also motivates us to persistently break new ground and actively contribute to the industry’s advancement,” he adds.