Africa Specialty Risks has stepped into the cyber market with a digital quote-and-bind product aimed at businesses across the continent, starting with South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius.
The company sees an opening in a region where cyber insurance remains thin on the ground even though threat levels look a lot like those faced in developed markets.
The policy sits on ASR 24-7, the firm’s automated underwriting platform. Authorised brokers can generate quotes and bind policies without waiting for manual sign-off, a shift that trims friction for smaller and mid-sized companies.
According to Beinsure, access has long been the sticking point for African cyber buyers. Insurers hesitate to write cyber in frontier markets because of patchy loss data and wide variations in security standards.
Insurance coverage reaches up to $5 mn for organisations with annual revenue up to $100 mn, and the security behind the policy comes through Lloyd’s AA-rated capacity.
By pushing distribution through a digital platform and leaning on targeted broker channels, ASR is trying to widen the funnel while keeping underwriting discipline intact.
The product also comes bundled with incident-response support, threat-intelligence feeds and security reporting, giving buyers a broader toolkit than a simple indemnity contract.
ASR CEO Mikir Shah said cyber demand across Africa is rising fast, and the company built the product with a panel of vendor partners ready to plug in when threats escalate. He added that ASR expects to expand availability to more countries through the 24-7 platform over the coming months.
ASR is meeting this need by offering a Lloyd’s cyber insurance solution for African businesses. This new product is backed by a panel of leading vendor partners who can assist companies both in preparation for, and in response to, any cyber incident.
Mikir Shah, Africa Specialty Risks CEO
The launch follows ASR’s recent establishment of Syndicate 2454 in Sandton, where underwriters handle insurance and reinsurance across South Africa and neighbouring states with a focus on specialty lines.
ASR said the syndicate will support local brokers and cedents across bespoke specialty lines that usually require more customised structures than standard treaty business allows.
Mikir Shah, ASR’s CEO, called South Africa a long-standing priority market and said the new platform lets the company write business directly, staying physically closer to customers while still offering AA rated global capacity. It’s a move that signals confidence in the region’s growth potential, even with the macro noise swirling around it.
In January 2025, ASR has launched Africa Specialty Risks Mauritius as a Lloyd’s service company. This move establishes Syndicate 2454, the first Lloyd’s syndicate dedicated to African business.
Syndicate 2454, operating from Mauritius, began underwriting at Lloyd’s in April 2024. It is projected to write £125 mn in gross premiums for 2025, focusing on ASR’s core lines of business.
Currently, Africa contributes just 2% to Lloyd’s global portfolio, making this syndicate a pivotal development for the region.
For ASR, the cyber rollout signals a step deeper into high-growth classes where digital distribution can shift market access almost overnight.
