Scout InsurTech Interview with Ric

Ric is an extreme weather-focused MGA that specializes in creating micro-parametric insurance solutions focused on faster disaster recovery and giving communities access to insurance at scale. Chris Luiz sat with Co-Founder and CEO, Nakita Devlin, to learn more about how Ric is impacting the industry.

Who are your clients?

We’re working closely with large employers to understand their needs and insurance carriers and brokers to pilot our product. One of our early potential partners is a carrier that provides disability and life insurance products. We’re in discussions with them for a pilot that would reach employees across the U.S. We are also in talks with one of the largest global voluntary brokerages. These relationships are important because they are creating avenues for us to address the national need for disaster recovery insurance while simultaneously helping us explore both distribution and long-term capacity partnerships.

What does your product do?

We offer a parametric insurance product designed to deliver lump-sum payouts in the event of extreme weather disasters. Think of it like Aflac but for your home. What makes what we’re doing unique is that we distribute it as an employee benefit. By embedding our product in employer-benefit packages, we create a seamless, scalable way for people to access financial protection when they need it most, and we offer a new channel of value for insurers and brokers.

How much capital have you raised?

Our focus up until now has been on building strong, early traction by lining up customers, securing pilots and validating our approach in the market. Now that we’ve made some great progress toward those milestones, we have begun to turn our attention to potential capital opportunities. We’re revisiting earlier investment conversations and expect to place greater focus on this priority in the coming quarter.

Was the company born from within or outside the industry?

Our team is deeply rooted in the insurance world. I’ve been in insurance for 15 years, including time at CRC Swett and Willis Towers Watson funded start-up. Having spent decades in conversation with individuals who had experienced catastrophic loss, I saw the opportunity to leverage technology and parametric insurance structures to create helpful insurance products that could address an unmet need in the market.

What growth metrics have you accomplished over the last 12 months?

While we’re still early, we’ve made major progress. We’re in discussions with several reinsurers and carriers, we’re working to secure capacity, and we’re starting to line up our first customers. 

We’re also participating in upcoming industry events, including a few events and conferences in June, to further build visibility and relationships. And we’ve added a new hire who brings significant disaster recovery expertise to our team.

Within your domain, what is the current challenge that the industry is facing?

Awareness of parametric insurance products and their benefits has been steadily growing in some parts of the world, but here in the U.S., there’s still work to be done in terms of education about how these products work and the value they bring to the market. One of the nice things about working with employee benefits teams is that we have a great opportunity to educate both buyers and end insureds about the role that products like ours can play in a comprehensive risk management plan.

How does Ric take a unique approach to providing value?

We’re not just selling disaster insurance; we’re rethinking how it reaches people. By embedding our product into employee-benefit packages, we’re opening up a completely different distribution model. We’re working with carriers not just for underwriting, but to actually help us pilot and learn. In some cases, they might end up being our distribution partners too. This layered approach of product, validation and growth is what makes us different.

What inspired the team to start this company?

The inspiration for Ric came from the work my co-founder and I have done in the insurance industry. In our previous roles, we gained firsthand experience working with and talking to individuals who have been through catastrophic loss events, and we saw that everyday citizens were often falling through the market gaps.

At Ric, we’re leveraging my experience as an insurance broker and my work on multi-million-dollar programs with my co-founder’s background in catastrophe models and underwriting to create affordable parametric insurance products that help average citizens quickly recover after a disaster. We’re using our collective industry knowledge to create a product that’s not only effective but also distributed in a way that makes sense for modern employers and employees alike.

Can you share any goals for the next 12 months?

Our primary goals for the next year are to deepen our current pilots, secure additional capacity partners and expand our presence through key industry events. Beyond that, we’re aiming to validate our product with real customer data, scale distribution through employer channels and strengthen our ties with insurers who can help us grow. We’re excited about where we are and where we’re headed.

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