Prominent venture capitalist launches platform for business interruption risks

Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital, announced the launch of OTT Risk, a machine-learning platform designed to aid in the assessment of business interruption risks.

Palihapitiya on his Twitter page said the company's aim is to "combine machine learning with traditional risk underwriting to make a meaningful start in filling the business interruption coverage gaps which are upending economic lives."

The new venture plans to offer business continuity products designed to minimize basis risk for the insured and payout "parametrically, allowing for swift settlements." It will also structure alternative capital vehicles, offering investors a platform to invest in "economic resilience" protection comparable to CAT bonds, Palihapitiya noted.

"[OTT Risk] is being engineered over the top, OTT, of existing open-source news, financial, economic, climate and social data networks," the company said on its website.

The company said that its technology will support reinsurance marketplace to pair investor capital with enterprise risk, filling the nonphysical damage business interruption coverage gap.

Founder and CEO of Premise Data Corp. Inc. David Soloff, who is partnering with Palihapitiya on the project, said on his LinkedIn page that OTT Risk will focus on insuring and transferring forms of risk once deemed "uninsurable."