CatX partners with Cactus to enhance risk analytics, execution
An insurtech partnership has brought together Y Combinator and Lloyd’s Lab alumni to launch Bermuda’s largest insurance software firm, offering an AI-driven operating system for risk analysis and transaction execution.
CatX and Cactus announced their merger launching Cactus Risk Studio, an integrated AI platform that consolidates risk intelligence, underwriting analytics and transaction workflows into a single operating environment. The transaction was supported by leading counsel from Walkers in Bermuda and Barclay Damon in the United States.
While established financial centres contend with mounting volatility and regulatory complexity, Bermuda is positioning itself at the forefront of insurance market transformation.
The merger comes as traditional insurance workflows face pressure from accelerating climate volatility, rising cyber threats and social inflation. Manual processes that worked for decades now struggle to keep pace with the speed and complexity of modern risk assessment, while institutional investors seek more direct and transparent access to insurance markets as an asset class. The convergence of these forces is creating demand for integrated platforms that can process complex risk data at scale while maintaining the regulatory standards and relationship-based collaboration that define specialty insurance.
Cactus Risk Studio offers a simple way to get complex insurance work done in one place and helps organisations understand threats from events like natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
The platform facilitates collaboration among insurance buyers, advisers, insurers and investors in a shared workspace. It utilises AI to process and analyse uploaded files and data, identifying any missing elements. Users can compare options side by side and conduct scenario analyses with clear rationale for decisions.
The platform supports deal completion by allowing users to invite insurers and investors, compare offers, agree on contracts and finalise transactions in a regulated environment.
It also offers monitoring capabilities for exposure and results, with alerts and export options for reports suitable for boards and regulators.
The combined entity brings substantial market presence. Cactus currently processes more than 500 million dollars in insurance premiums through its Marmalade platform.
CatX operates a Bermuda-regulated digital exchange that connects insurers with capital from more than 50 funds managing over one trillion dollars in assets.
Benedict Altier, chief executive officer of CatX, said: “The insurance market has always looked to Bermuda when the industry needed to evolve. We are at one of those inflection points now: climate volatility, cyber threats, social inflation. The old manual processes cannot keep pace. This merger is not just combining two companies, it is creating the infrastructure for how risk gets analysed, priced, and traded in the AI era. We are giving the market the tools to move at the speed reality now demands.”
James Robinson, chief executive officer of Cactus, said: “Cactus already processes half a billion in premiums for underwriting teams across three continents. We know what works in the real world of broking and underwriting. Bringing together our platform with CatX’s AI capabilities and regulated exchange gives our clients something that has never existed before: one integrated studio where they can originate, analyse, price, document and place risk with complete transparency. After two years working alongside CatX, this merger was the logical next step.”
The platform consolidates what typically requires multiple systems into a single workspace. AI reads complex submissions and flags coverage gaps in real time, while automated scenario testing provides transparent reasoning codes that explain pricing decisions. All participants, including brokers, underwriters, risk managers and investors, work within the same environment with role-based access controls and full audit trails from submission through final execution via the CatX regulated exchange.
Cactus emerged from Lloyd’s Lab in 2022 and quickly built momentum as one of Bermuda’s fastest-growing technology companies. The company’s approach centres on collaborative workspace design that unifies submissions, pricing, documentation and analytics. This integrated methodology has resonated with underwriting teams managing complex casualty and specialty lines.
Cactus Risk Studio will launch with select clients in Q4 2025, with broader availability in early 2026.
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