Image Credit: Vertigo3d // Getty Images

As provider of what it calls “Active Insurance,” Coalition not only offers insurance coverage against cyberthreats, but also offers a real-time risk assessment tool that can provide profiles of an organization’s digital risks in real time, and incident response support in the event of a breach.

Since the organization was founded in 2017, Coalition has quickly established itself as one of the biggest providers in the cybersecurity insurance market, which researchers valued at $11.9 billion in 2022 and anticipate will reach $29.2 billion in 2027. 

Today, Coalition announced it has raised $250 million as part of a series F funding round. The new funding brings the organization’s valuation to $5 billion. 

One of the key reasons for the fast growth of Coalition — and the cyber insurance market as a whole — is that enterprises are in dire need of solutions to mitigate the financial impact of intrusions. The average cost of an intrusion in 2021 was $4.24 million, and cyber insurance has the potential to reduce the total cost. 

Reducing the cost of a data breach with cyber insurance

An increase in the volume and sophistication of modern attacks has driven organizations to use cyber insurance to mitigate the financial risk associated with data breaches. 

Today, many enterprises are realizing that they’re not in a position to adequately control cyber risk across the entire attack surface, with research showing that 83% of organizations report they aren’t adequately protected against digital threats. This highlights that modern cyberthreats are simply too complex for enterprises to address with complete consistency. 

“People are often still surprised by how much of our economy is reliant on digital technologies connected to digital systems. It’s predicted that over 60% of the world’s GDP will be digitized by the end of this year, reliant on a digital system in some way,” said Shawn Ram, head of insurance at Coalition. 

“But when an incident strikes these digital systems, there’s no 911 to call, no responders who can show up to help you. Larger organizations may have a large security and IT team, but small and mid-sized organizations are often left to fend for themselves,” Ram said. 

Ram explains that Coalition aims to provide support to these organizations, mitigating cyber risk by providing tools and coverage that can help before, during and after a security incident, offering services like digital forensics and incident response. 

Key players in the cybersecurity insurance market 

When it comes to insurance providers, Coalition is competing against some monolithic providers. One of its biggest competitors is AIG, an insurance provider that offers cyber insurance coverage, and recently announced raising $9.4 billion in revenue in 2021. 

AIG’s CyberEdge liability coverage covers financial costs associated with a data breach in addition to event management, data restoration, third-party costs, network interruption and extortion. 

There’s also an expanded policy that covers business interruption, property damage, physical industry and product/completed operation coverage. 

Another prominent competitor is Beazley, which offers its own cyber insurance package for small and mid-sized organizations, offering coverage against cyber extortion, data recovery, business interruption and e-crime. The company recently announced generating $369.2 million in profit last year.

Other competitors include Hiscox, a small-business insurance provider with a cyber insurance package, which announced generating $190.8 million in profit last year. 

However, one of the key differences between Coalition and traditional reactive insurance competitors is that Coalition says its Active Risk platform has the ability proactively to scan and monitor billions of devices connected to the public internet. This enables users to get personalized recommendations on how to manage cyber risk in a way they wouldn’t with a conventional insurance service.