James River Selects Kalepa’s AI Underwriting Platform

WHY THIS MATTERS:

The excess and surplus (E&S) insurance market is growing rapidly, but so is the pressure on underwriters to move faster without sacrificing discipline. Rising submission volumes, increasingly complex risks and tighter profitability targets are forcing carriers to rethink traditional underwriting workflows. AI is emerging as a critical enabler—not to replace underwriters, but to augment judgment with speed, consistency and richer risk insight. Platforms that automate intake, triage and data aggregation help insurers respond to opportunities in real time while maintaining portfolio-level control. In today’s E&S environment, competitive advantage is defined by how effectively technology supports disciplined risk selection at scale, rather than simply how much business can be written.

Kalepa, the leader in Professional Grade AI for insurance underwriting, today announced that James River Insurance Company, a subsidiary of James River Group Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: JRVR), has selected Kalepa’s AI platform to advance the Company’s operating efficiency in today’s E&S market.

James River plans to deploy Kalepa’s platform to augment underwriting decisions and improve speed to market and portfolio management across E&S underwriting. The engagement reflects James River’s strategic focus on technology designed to enhance competitive positioning and support long-term profitable growth.

Kalepa’s Professional Grade AI is purpose-built for insurance underwriting teams and supports the end-to-end underwriting process. The platform automates submission intake, intelligently triages risks, embeds rating capabilities, and centralizes risk-critical information from diverse sources. Kalepa delivers a decision-ready quote and risk profile designed to help underwriters act decisively and improve portfolio performance.

By combining highly reliable automation with actionable risk intelligence, Kalepa enables underwriting teams to evaluate risks more thoroughly while significantly reducing time spent. This combination of speed and insight supports both individual underwriter productivity and enterprise-wide underwriting discipline – key drivers of sustainable profitability.

“This investment directly supports our focus on disciplined underwriting and our commitment to providing our employees with state-of-the-art technology to deliver shareholder value,” said Todd Sutherland, President at James River. “Kalepa will help our underwriters make faster, more consistent decisions with better insight – strengthening risk selection and portfolio performance.”

“Unleashing AI enabled technology and fostering a culture of continuous improvement is a winning formula and what we will be known for.  Kalepa’s integrated platform, deep understanding of insurance underwriting and proven ability to drive measurable results were key in our selection process” said Valdean Langenburg, Group Chief Information Officer at James River. 

“James River has a clear vision for how they want to operate – disciplined underwriting, faster, data driven decisions, and profitable growth,” said Paul Monasterio, CEO of Kalepa. “We’re proud they chose Kalepa’s Professional Grade AI to support that vision and help their teams act with consistency and confidence.”

FF NEWS TAKE:

This selection highlights the shift toward AI as core underwriting infrastructure in specialty insurance. The real impact will be measured in sustained loss performance and underwriting consistency over time. Watch for broader adoption of purpose-built underwriting AI as E&S carriers balance growth with tighter risk governance.