Built from the inside. With the market, not ahead of it.
Launched in 2022 from inside Swiss Re's ILS structuring group. I wasn't speculating on what the market needed — I was building what practitioners had already told me was missing. Led product end to end — from first wireframe to production. Still one of the primary datarooms and pricing distribution platforms in the market today.
The ILS market had no neutral operational layer. Investors tracking cat bonds across a portfolio were managing payment dates, loss events, reporting timelines, and sidecar mechanics — DWAC roll-forwards, reconciliations — manually, in spreadsheets, over email.
Information was fragmented, gated, or simply unavailable. Structurers controlled access to their own deals and nothing else. There was no unified portfolio view, no automated accountability, and no auditable pricing standard the market could trust or license.
I was embedded inside Swiss Re's ILS structuring group — which meant direct access to the investors, sponsors, and counterparties who lived with these problems every day. The requirements weren't hypothetical. They came from real conversations, real friction, real deals.
The constraint was the same as the advantage: building inside an institutional structurer meant real data, real users, and a hard ceiling. When a cedant moved their next deal to a competitor and insisted on keeping platform access anyway — that was the first proof of pull that existed independent of the parent institution.
Portfolio Calendar
A global chronological view of events across an investor's entire bond portfolio — coupon dates, loss payment timelines, reporting milestones. Filterable by maturity, sponsor, cedant, and peril. Investors had been tracking this in spreadsheets. Once they had it in one place, they didn't go back.
Smart Notifications
Automated alerts sent 7 days, 1 day, and day-of for every required action across the deal lifecycle — to sponsors, SPV administrators, and investors. Created accountability where there was none. Reduced operational follow-up calls and kept deal timelines tight without anyone having to chase.
Data Room with Free API Access
Full deal documentation access with API downloads — no per-file fee. The only platform in the market to offer this. The decision to remove the fee wasn't popular internally. It was the right call. Institutional investors noticed immediately, and the contrast with fee-gated alternatives did the marketing for us.
Daily Pricing
Delivered via XLS and PDF on day one, then evolved into an interactive pricing portal with historical timelines per bond — overlaid with comparables across the market. The data existed. Structuring it into something queryable and visual was the work.
IOSCO-Compliant Pricing Index
An effort to convert the market's longest-standing cat bond total return index into a licenseable, auditable index built to IOSCO standards. Five years of history, constituent weights, portfolio composition — visualized and linked to the pricing portal. Shipped to a beta group of institutional investors with high praise. Full auditability remained in progress, dependent on upstream data workflows that sat outside product's control.
40%
YoY growth in managed bonds
Same headcount. Operational efficiency through smart notifications and calendar tooling.
3+
Years in active market use
Still running. Still one of the primary datarooms and pricing distribution platforms in the ILS market.
1st
Free API doc access in the market
No per-file fees on documentation downloads. Every fee-gated competitor noticed.
2023
Insurance Insider ILS Insurtech of the Year
The market's own recognition — not a trade show award. Voted by the people using it.
The market didn't need convincing. It needed someone inside the room, with the access and the mandate to actually build it.
Swiss Re · ACP iLink · Launched 2022 · Active
Building something similar?
Complex market. Fragmented data. Institutional stakeholders who know exactly what they need but have never had it built for them.