Onda

Onda
Onda Holding S.A.
Corporate identity
Type	Managing general agent (MGA)
Founded	2022
Headquarters	Bertrange, Luxembourg (holding); London, United Kingdom; Paris, France; Miami, Florida, United States
Domicile	Luxembourg
Regulator	FCA (UK), ACPR (France), US state DOIs
Ultimate parent	Onda Holding S.A.
Major shareholders	8VC, K5 Global, Northstar.VC, AAF Management, Bhansali Equities
Key people	Joe Lonsdale (Co-Founder), Ashley Hirst (President & MD), Ed McGough (Group CTO), Alex Jomaa (CUO)
Number of employees	35–50 (estimated)
Business & markets
Lines of business	Cyber insurance
Main products	Onda+ (SME), Onda X (mid-market)
Distribution	Broker-only
Competitors	Coalition, At-Bay, Cowbell, Stoïk, Eye Security, Elpha Secure, Cogitanda, Sync Underwriting
Key financials (December 31)
Insurance revenue	£2 million (CKRe, FY2023)
Equity	£1.3 million (CKRe net assets, FY2023)
External ratings	Capacity carriers rated A (AM Best) or better
Financial data reflects CKRe Limited (UK entity) only; consolidated group figures are not publicly available.

🛡️ Onda is a Lloyd's-backed cyber insurance MGA founded in 2022 by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and cybersecurity executive Paul Calatayud, operating through five legal entities across Luxembourg, the UK, France, and the United States. The parent holding company, Onda Holding S.A., is domiciled in Luxembourg, with the technology entity (Onda AI, Inc.) in Miami, the UK distribution vehicle (CKRe Limited, a repurposed FCA-authorized Lloyd's broker originally incorporated in 1998) in London, Onda SAS in Paris, and the US licensed producer (Onda Insurance Services, Inc.) holding surplus lines licenses in over 40 states. The company was recognized as a triple finalist in the 2024 Cyber Insurance Awards Europe and is a member of the UK Managing General Agents' Association, with estimated total group headcount of 35–50.

👔 Leadership and talent. Ashley Hirst (President and Managing Director) brings eight years at McKinsey and senior roles at AIG and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, where he led the underwriting behind Coalition; Ed McGough (Group CTO) is a former AIG CIO of Commercial Underwriting and co-founder of Blackboard Insurance and Joyn Insurance, with a dual title at Pleiad Group suggesting shared technology infrastructure. Alex Jomaa (CUO), twice voted Underwriter of the Year by Insurance Insider's Cyber Rankings during his tenure at Tokio Marine Kiln, joined in mid-2023, while Patrick Cannon (Chief Claims Officer) brings 20-plus years of London market experience from TMK and Marsh. The dominant organizational lineage is AIG and Tokio Marine Kiln, with no identified AXA connection across any founder, executive, board member, investor, or capacity partner.

💰 Funding and investors. Onda has raised approximately $10 million in total from 8VC (Lonsdale's own firm), K5 Global, Northstar.VC, AAF Management, and Bhansali Equities, with CB Insights recording a separate $500,000 convertible note from K5 Global Technology. No formal Series A has been announced, and the capital appears to have been raised quietly with no major press coverage. The investor base consists entirely of generalist tech and venture capital, with no insurance-focused or cyber-specialist VCs — an atypical composition that may limit strategic capital access relative to peers backed by Zurich, Allianz, or Munich Re arms.

📋 Products and coverage. Onda offers two named products: Onda+ for SME companies (revenues up to £100 million / €100 million, any-one-claim limits up to £5 million / €5 million, UK and France) and Onda X for mid-market companies (revenues up to £1 billion, aggregate limits up to £5 million / $5 million, UK, France, and US). Both use proprietary policy wordings on a claims-made basis, covering business interruption including third-party cloud outages, data restoration, ransomware and cyber extortion, bricking, reputational harm, social engineering, regulatory fines, and network security and privacy liability. Zero-deductible breach response services include 24/7 incident response hotlines, forensic experts, legal counsel, and crisis communications, managed through the Five Sigma AI-native claims platform selected in November 2024.

🔍 Technology platform. The proprietary Navigator platform replaces traditional proposal forms with automated cyber risk assessments, integrating three data layers: internal telemetry (via connections to AWS, Microsoft Azure & Defender, SentinelOne, and CrowdStrike), external attack surface analysis, and real-time threat intelligence. An exclusive two-year partnership with Panorays, announced in October 2024, provides external attack surface management and third-party/supply chain risk rating, with Panorays recognized as a Forrester Wave 2024 leader in cybersecurity risk ratings. Navigator and the 360-degree risk scan are included with every policy at no additional cost, positioned as a core differentiator — though Onda does not offer MDR, SOC-as-a-service, or active threat detection and response.

🌍 Distribution and geography. Onda operates a broker-only distribution model across all three markets with no embedded, affinity, or direct channels, using a broker portal (portal.onda.ai) for quoting and binding and a policyholder dashboard (dashboard.onda.ai) for Navigator access. The company launched in the UK around October 2023 through CKRe Limited on Lloyd's paper (Canopius and Argenta for Onda+, Everest Syndicate 2786 for Onda X), in France in early 2024 through Onda SAS, and entered the US in October 2025 through Onda Insurance Services on Crum & Forster surplus lines paper (rated A+ Superior by AM Best, part of Fairfax Financial Holdings). Distribution talent was recruited directly from competitors, with Stuart McMillan and Christopher Reynolds both joining from Coalition.

📊 Financial position. CKRe Limited reported £2 million in turnover, £1.3 million in net assets, and £5.1 million in cash reserves as of December 2023, with a Pomanda financial health score of 1 out of 7 and a liabilities-to-assets ratio of 93.1%. The company is pre-profitability and early-stage; consolidated group financials are not publicly available, and the CKRe figures may not reflect the full group position if capitalization flows through Onda Holding S.A. or Onda AI, Inc. Onda's scale is several orders of magnitude smaller than market leaders, with Coalition reporting GWP exceeding $775 million and CFC exceeding £1 billion in annual premium.

⚠️ Risk factors. Talent retention risk is elevated: co-founder Paul Calatayud departed after 15 months in January 2024, the entire French operational leadership (Gatte, de Maistre, Allomong-Cottet) departed in 2025 with Gatte joining competitor Coalition France, and at $10 million raised, Onda is thinly capitalized relative to Coalition ($755 million), At-Bay ($292 million), and Cowbell ($122 million). Capacity dependency on Canopius, Argenta, Everest, and Crum & Forster creates vulnerability to carrier relationship disruption, while operating across three regulatory regimes (FCA, ACPR, US state DOIs) adds compliance complexity. Corporate structure opacity — involving Onda Holding S.A., Risk Capital S.A., Agora Group Holdings Limited, and the Pleiad Group — creates additional due diligence complexity.

🧭 Strategic outlook. Onda's strategy centers on technology-first underwriting, broker-exclusive distribution, progressive geographic expansion, upmarket migration from SME to mid-market, and continuous monitoring as a retention tool, with the October 2025 US launch representing its most ambitious move to date. Open diligence questions include the status of French operations post-leadership exodus, the actual corporate relationship between Onda and the Pleiad Group ownership chain, loss experience after two-plus years of writing business, and whether additional fundraising is planned to sustain three-market competition. Onda's pure-play cyber positioning (no Tech E&O, D&O, or adjacent lines) differentiates it from Coalition and At-Bay but narrows its addressable premium pool, while the competitive landscape continues to consolidate around better-capitalized incumbents.

The following sections provide further details.

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Corporate profile and group structure

🏢 Legal entities. Onda operates through five legal entities spanning four jurisdictions. The parent holding company, Onda Holding S.A., is domiciled in Luxembourg (registration B266272) at 33, rue du Puits Romain, L-8070 Bertrange. Onda AI, Inc., registered in Florida at 1110 Brickell Ave., Suite 515, Miami, FL 33131, serves as the technology and platform entity. Onda Insurance Services, Inc., incorporated in Maryland (NPN 21439548; MD License #30034368120), is the US licensed insurance producer with surplus lines authorizations in over 40 states. CKRe Limited (Companies House 03600683), trading as "Onda," is the FCA-authorized UK distribution entity (FRN 308735) located at 2nd Floor, 40 Lime Street, London, EC3M 7AW. Onda SAS (RCS Paris 910621077, ORIAS #22005524) operates as the French distribution entity at 80, avenue d'Iéna, 75116 Paris.

📜 Shell acquisition. CKRe Limited was originally incorporated on July 20, 1998, as a longstanding Lloyd's broker. Onda appears to have acquired or repurposed this FCA-authorized shell to gain immediate regulatory authorization for UK insurance distribution. CKRe's persons of significant control shifted to Agora Group Holdings Limited in April 2025 (replacing Henri Junior Chalhoub), with Risk Capital S.A. recorded as the 100% shareholder and Martin Andrew Wright listed as a shareholder and director. The precise corporate link between Risk Capital S.A. and Onda Holding S.A. is not publicly established, though the entities operate functionally as a single group.

⚖️ Regulatory status. Onda is not a carrier; it operates as an MGA writing on third-party carrier paper and describes itself as an approved Lloyd's Coverholder on its UK website, though a specific coverholder number was not located in public Lloyd's registers. In France, Onda SAS is supervised by the ACPR and registered with ORIAS as an insurance intermediary. In the United States, Onda Insurance Services holds surplus lines producer licenses in over 40 jurisdictions. No BaFin, AFM (Netherlands), or other EU registrations were found — the company does not operate in Germany, the Netherlands, or any EU market beyond France. No sanctions or enforcement actions have been identified against any Onda entity.

📊 Scale indicators. CKRe Limited reports approximately 15 employees as of December 2023; the R&D and technology team comprises approximately 20 staff based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., bringing estimated total group headcount to 35–50. CKRe reported £2 million in turnover and £5.1 million in cash reserves as of December 2023. The company is a member of the MGAA (UK Managing General Agents' Association).

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Founders and leadership

🔬 Joe Lonsdale — co-founder. An American entrepreneur, Lonsdale co-founded Palantir Technologies (the defense and intelligence data analytics company) and is the founder and Managing Partner of 8VC, a leading Silicon Valley venture firm. His role at Onda is principally as founder and capital backer through 8VC. His Palantir background confers a defense- and intelligence-adjacent connection, though he is not personally a member of the intelligence community. He has extensive startup experience spanning Palantir, Addepar, Affinity, OpenGov, and the broader 8VC portfolio, but no direct insurance industry background.

🛡️ Paul Calatayud — co-founder (departed). Calatayud served as Chief Strategy Officer from October 2022 through January 2024, a tenure of approximately 15 months. His background includes service as a US Army information security cryptographer, followed by senior cybersecurity roles including Global CSO at Palo Alto Networks, CISO at Aqua Security, Deputy CISO at UnitedHealth Group (Fortune 5), CISO at Surescripts, Director of Risk & Compliance at Best Buy, and Instructor at SANS Institute (2008–2022). He holds CISSP, CISA, CISM, and GCIH certifications along with a PhD in leadership. His early departure is a notable due diligence signal.

👔 Current leadership team. Ashley Hirst serves as President and Managing Director, bringing a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science (Manchester), MSc in Finance (London Business School), eight years at McKinsey (2004–2012), and senior roles at AIG (Head of Science/Distribution EMEA, CUO/COO AIG Europe, 2012–2017) and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (Group Head of Underwriting Strategy, CUO and Chief Innovation/Transformation Officer, 2017–2022, where he led the underwriting behind Coalition at Swiss Re). Ed McGough, Group CTO, holds a BSc in Computer Science (Nottingham, First Class) and an MBA (Edinburgh/Curtin), with prior experience as Head of Engineering and CIO of Commercial Underwriting at AIG (2013–2017), and as co-founder and CTO of both Blackboard Insurance (an AIG spinout) and Joyn Insurance; he is also listed as Group CTO at Pleiad Group, suggesting a holding or technology structure encompassing Onda.

🏆 Underwriting and claims leadership. Alex Jomaa, Chief Underwriting Officer, is a law graduate and former Senior Cyber Underwriter at Tokio Marine Kiln with over 10 years in the Lloyd's market; he was twice voted Underwriter of the Year (2016 and 2017) by Insurance Insider's Cyber Rankings and joined Onda in mid-2023. Patrick Cannon, Chief Claims Officer (FCII), previously served as Head of Cyber Claims at TMK and Head of Cyber Claims at Marsh, where he won the Claims Service Solution of the Year 2023 at the Insurance Times Awards, bringing over 20 years of London market experience. Gillian Harvey, Group Head of Compliance, has held compliance positions at Athora Holding, Chubb, CFC Underwriting, HDI Global Specialty, AmTrust Europe, and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

🌍 Distribution and regional leads. Stuart McMillan, Distribution Director, previously led Coalition's expansion in North England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and brings over 13 years in international insurance markets. Christopher Reynolds and AJ Jones handle US business development, with Reynolds having spent four years at Coalition in broker distribution and Jones coming from Beazley Group (since 2015, in cyber/tech underwriting, claims, and distribution). The France leadership team has largely departed: Stanislas Chapron (President of Onda SAS, ex-President of Marsh France/Europe, École Polytechnique, Stanford MS) remains on record, but Frédéric Gatte (Managing Director, ex-Head of Cyber at Diot-Siaci, former naval officer), Gina Allomong-Cottet (Senior Underwriter, ex-AIG Paris), and Alexis de Maistre (Commercial Director) all left by mid-to-late 2025. Gatte joined Coalition France as Director of Underwriting in August 2025.

📌 Corporate DNA. The dominant organizational lineage is AIG (Hirst, McGough, Fabiana) and Tokio Marine Kiln (Jomaa, Cannon). No identified AXA connection exists across any founder, executive, board member, investor, or capacity partner.

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Funding and valuation

💰 Capital raised. Onda has raised approximately $10 million in total, according to PitchBook, from 8VC, K5 Global, Northstar.VC, AAF Management, and Bhansali Equities. CB Insights separately records a $500,000 convertible note from K5 Global Technology; the discrepancy likely reflects partial versus comprehensive tracking, with PitchBook's figure representing the more complete estimate across multiple tranches or instruments. No formal Series A announcement has been made, and no press releases or major tech-media coverage of any funding round has appeared, suggesting capital has been raised quietly. Post-money valuation has not been disclosed.

📊 Onda — Funding rounds by source

Source	Amount	Round type	Investors listed
CB Insights	$500K	Convertible note	K5 Global Technology
PitchBook	$10M (total)	—	AAF Management, Bhansali Equities, K5 Global, Northstar.VC
Crunchbase	—	Seed	K5 Global, Northstar.VC
Bhansali SFO	—	—	8VC, K5 Global, Northstar.VC

🔍 Investor profile. 8VC, Joe Lonsdale's firm, is a generalist venture capital fund with a Palantir and defense-tech pedigree rather than an insurance-specific focus. K5 Global, Northstar.VC, and AAF Management are generalist investment firms. Bhansali Equities / Bhansali SFO is a single-family office that has published a detailed Onda portfolio page. No AXA-linked investors (AXA Venture Partners, AXA XL Innovation, Kamet Ventures) were identified among the backers, and no insurance-focused or cyber-specialist VCs are among the disclosed investors — an atypical composition for cyber MGA fundraising. The investor base leans toward generalist tech and venture capital anchored by Lonsdale's personal network.

🏦 Runway signals. CKRe Limited held £5.1 million in cash against £2 million in turnover as of December 2023, suggesting either premium trust funds, parent capitalization, or reserve balances. The relatively modest disclosed funding for an MGA operating across three markets suggests either additional unreported capital, significant bootstrapping, or lean operational cost structures enabled by the Pleiad Group technology infrastructure shared with Joyn Insurance.

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Customer segments

🏢 Segment definitions. Onda offers two named products segmented by insured revenue and limit structure. Onda+ targets SME companies with revenues up to £100 million or €100 million, providing limits up to £5 million or €5 million on an any-one-claim basis across the UK and France. Onda X targets mid-market companies with revenues of £100 million–£1 billion (UK/France) or $50 million–$1 billion (US), providing aggregate limits up to £5 million or $5 million on a primary or excess basis across the UK, France, and the US.

📊 Onda — Product segments by revenue threshold and limit structure

Product	Revenue threshold	Maximum limit	Limit basis	Geography
Onda+	Up to £100M / €100M	£5M / €5M	Any one claim	UK, France
Onda X	£100M–£1B (UK/FR); $50M–$1B (US)	£5M / $5M	Aggregate; primary or excess	UK, France, US

🌐 Industry scope. Onda markets itself as industry-agnostic, with no publicly stated vertical exclusions. The company's educational content and threat intelligence output focuses broadly on ransomware, social engineering, and supply chain risks affecting all commercial sectors. No enterprise segment product (for companies with revenue exceeding $1 billion) exists.

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Cyber insurance coverage

📋 Policy form. Onda uses proprietary ("bespoke") policy wordings rather than standard carrier paper, with named products Onda+ (SME) and Onda X (mid-market). Full policy wording documents are not publicly available. The policy trigger is consistent with standard claims-made cyber forms based on claims guidance language.

🔒 First-party coverages. Business interruption and system failure coverage addresses increased costs of working and loss of profits from cyber incidents, explicitly extending to third-party IT provider and cloud outages so that identical coverage applies whether an attack hits the client's own network or a contracted provider's systems. Data and system restoration covers costs of restoring, repairing, or recreating damaged data and software. Ransomware and cyber extortion coverage includes expert negotiators and extortion demand payments, described as "last resort" coverage subject to policy limitations. Bricking coverage pays for system replacement where repair is impractical, including updating vulnerable hardware and software. Reputational harm coverage addresses future revenue loss resulting from a cyberattack, and social engineering / funds transfer fraud coverage encompasses stolen funds via system hacking, redirected payments, and confidence-trick-induced transfers.

🤝 Third-party coverages. Network security and privacy liability is implied in coverage of third-party claims arising from data breaches and network security failures. Data breach notification costs are explicitly covered for GDPR and regulatory notification compliance, and regulatory fines and penalties coverage extends to fines or corrective actions imposed by authorities post-breach. Media liability, PCI-DSS, and Tech E&O were not found as explicitly listed coverages.

🚨 Breach response services. Onda provides zero-deductible access to a panel of incident response providers, including 24/7 incident response hotlines (US: +1 800 385 0622; UK: 020 8158 9113), IT security and forensic experts, legal counsel, and crisis communications specialists. Claims are managed through the Five Sigma AI-native claims management platform, selected in November 2024, with each case assigned a named underwriter with direct contact. The panel approach (rather than policyholder choice of provider) is the default.

📑 Coverage differentiation. Onda+ provides any-one-claim limits, meaning each claim receives the full limit unreduced by other claims. Onda X provides aggregate limits on a primary or excess basis. Both products cap at £5 million or $5 million. No coverage feature differentiation beyond the limit structure has been publicly disclosed.

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Cybersecurity services

🔍 Pre-bind capabilities. Onda generates a free, no-obligation risk report in seconds with actionable remediation steps and delivers a complimentary 360° risk scan with every quotation, powered by a Panorays integration and in-house scanning. A Cyber Insurability Assessment is delivered at the quotation stage via the Navigator platform, accompanied by external attack surface analysis and third-party/supply chain risk mapping through Panorays.

📡 Continuous monitoring. Navigator by Onda provides ongoing vulnerability monitoring with actionable insights, live threat intelligence feeds, and supply chain oversight throughout the policy period. Integrations with AWS, Microsoft Azure & Defender, SentinelOne, and CrowdStrike provide internal telemetry data. The risk engine combines three data layers: Navigator internal telemetry, external attack surface analysis, and real-time threat intelligence. Onda does not offer MDR, SOC-as-a-service, or managed security operations; its monitoring is risk-assessment and alerting focused rather than active threat detection and response.

🛠️ Technology stack. Navigator is a proprietary platform. The exclusive two-year Panorays partnership, announced in October 2024, provides external attack surface management and third-party risk rating; Panorays was recognized as a leader in the Forrester Wave 2024 for cybersecurity risk ratings. Five Sigma provides AI-native claims management. The R&D team of approximately 20 engineers operates from Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. Ed McGough's dual title at Pleiad Group suggests shared technology infrastructure with Joyn Insurance, another AIG-alumni-founded insurtech.

💡 Business model. Navigator and the 360° risk scan are included with every policy at no additional cost to policyholders or brokers, with no disclosed freemium or separate subscription model. This is positioned as a core differentiator versus competitors that charge separately for cybersecurity tools.

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Product expansion

🎯 Pure-play positioning. Onda is a pure-play cyber insurance MGA with no adjacent lines — Tech E&O, D&O, EPL, crime, professional liability, general liability, or property — launched or publicly announced. No product roadmap or multi-line ambitions have been disclosed, and the company does not appear to harbor full-stack carrier ambitions. This pure-play positioning contrasts with peers such as Coalition (which bundles Tech E&O) and At-Bay (which offers Tech E&O alongside cyber).

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Distribution and geographic expansion

🖥️ Broker-only model. Onda operates a broker-only distribution model across all three markets and does not solicit insurance directly from commercial customers. No evidence of embedded, affinity, bancassurance, white-label, or open API distribution channels was found. Key platform capabilities include a broker portal (portal.onda.ai) for quoting, binding, and policy management; a policyholder dashboard (dashboard.onda.ai) for Navigator access and risk monitoring; a streamlined application process replacing traditional proposal forms with technology-driven assessments; and a quote-to-bind workflow described as achievable "in clicks, not days" with direct access to named decision-making underwriters.

🌍 Geographic presence. Onda launched in the UK around October 2023 through CKRe Limited, followed by France in early 2024 through Onda SAS, and entered the US in October 2025 through Onda Insurance Services with Crum & Forster surplus lines capacity.

📊 Onda — Geographic presence by market, entity, and capacity provider

Market	Launch date	Entity	Licensing approach	Capacity provider
UK	~October 2023	CKRe Limited (FCA FRN 308735)	Lloyd's Coverholder via FCA-authorized broker	Canopius, Argenta (Onda+); Everest Syndicate 2786 (Onda X)
France	~Early 2024	Onda SAS (ORIAS 22005524)	Lloyd's Europe via ACPR-supervised intermediary	Canopius, Argenta (Onda+); Everest (Onda X)
US	October 2025	Onda Insurance Services, Inc. (NPN 21439548)	Surplus lines producer, 40+ state licenses	Crum & Forster Specialty (NAIC 44520)

📈 Talent recruitment. Onda recruited distribution talent directly from competitors: Stuart McMillan and Christopher Reynolds both joined from Coalition.

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Carrier, reinsurance, and strategic partnerships

🏛️ Capacity providers. In the UK and France, Onda+ is written on Lloyd's paper through Canopius (lead) and Argenta, both carrying Lloyd's ratings of A (AM Best) and A+ (S&P). Onda X is written through Everest via Lloyd's Syndicate 2786, established in 2015, 100% Everest-backed and managed by Asta, with ratings of A+ Superior (AM Best) and AA- Very Strong (S&P). In the US, Onda writes on Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company (NAIC 44520), a surplus lines non-admitted carrier rated A+ Superior by AM Best, part of Fairfax Financial Holdings.

📊 Onda — Capacity providers by market, carrier, and financial strength rating

Market	Carrier / syndicate	Structure	Rating
UK/France (Onda+)	Canopius (lead) + Argenta via Lloyd's	Lloyd's binder	A (AM Best), A+ (S&P) — Lloyd's ratings
UK/France (Onda X)	Everest via Lloyd's Syndicate 2786	Lloyd's binder	A+ Superior (AM Best), AA- Very Strong (S&P)
US	Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company	Surplus lines, non-admitted	A+ Superior (AM Best)

🤝 Strategic partnerships. The Panorays partnership (October 2024) is an exclusive two-year agreement for external attack surface and third-party/supply chain cyber risk assessment; Panorays holds the distinction of being a Forrester Wave 2024 leader in cybersecurity risk ratings. The Five Sigma partnership (November 2024) provides an AI-native claims management platform powering Onda's global cyber claims operations.

🚫 AXA relationship. No AXA connection has been identified. There is no AXA XL capacity or reinsurance relationship, no AXA Venture Partners or Kamet Ventures investment, no distribution agreement with any AXA entity, and no former AXA employees in the leadership team.

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Competitive positioning

📐 Market share. With CKRe reporting £2 million in turnover as of December 2023 and the company having launched its first product only in late 2023, Onda is in the earliest stages of premium growth. For context, Coalition reports a GWP run rate exceeding $775 million, CFC exceeds £1 billion in annual premium, and mid-tier peers such as Cowbell have raised over $100 million. Onda's scale is several orders of magnitude smaller than market leaders.

🛡️ Competitive moat. Onda's claimed differentiators center on four pillars. Technology-driven underwriting via Navigator replaces proposal forms with automated risk assessment, promising faster time-to-quote, though this mirrors approaches by Coalition, At-Bay, and Cowbell; Onda's specific integration depth (connecting directly into AWS, Azure, and endpoint security tools) may provide richer telemetry. The exclusive Panorays partnership provides a genuine differentiator in external attack surface and supply chain risk assessment, assuming exclusivity is enforceable and material. Lloyd's-backed capacity at A-rated or better from established carriers is a credibility signal, though Lloyd's capacity access is not unique among peer MGAs. The talent pedigree — particularly the AIG Advanced Data Science lineage of Hirst and McGough combined with Jomaa's market reputation — is a genuine credibility advantage, though talent retention risk is elevated given co-founder and French team departures.

🔎 Peer benchmarking. Onda clusters most closely with European-origin, broker-distributed, Lloyd's-backed SME and mid-market cyber MGAs — specifically Stoïk (France-founded, similar SME focus, Lloyd's-backed), Cogitanda (Germany-founded, European focus), and Sync Underwriting (UK, Lloyd's coverholder). It is meaningfully smaller and earlier-stage than Coalition, At-Bay, Cowbell, or Resilience, all of which have raised over $100 million and achieved significant GWP scale. Within Europe, Eye Security (MDR plus insurance bundle) and Elpha Secure (France-based, similar market) are the closest operational competitors. Onda's pure-play cyber focus differs from Coalition and At-Bay, which bundle complementary coverages; its lack of MDR/SOC capabilities distinguishes it from Eye Security; and its broker-only distribution model precludes the direct/digital channels used by Cowbell and some European peers.

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Financial performance

📊 CKRe Limited (Onda UK entity) — Key financial metrics, FY2023

Metric	Value	Source
Revenue	£2M	Companies House
Net assets	£1.3M	Companies House
Cash reserves	£5.1M	Companies House
Employees	~15	Companies House
Total group employees (est.)	35–50	Aggregated sources
Total funding raised	~$10M	PitchBook

📉 Financial trajectory. Onda is pre-profitability and in early growth phase, having launched its first UK product in late 2023, France in early 2024, and the US in October 2025. The Onda X mid-market expansion in March 2025 represents its most significant product evolution. The £2 million CKRe turnover figure (which may include legacy Lloyd's broking activity, not solely Onda MGA commissions) suggests a very modest premium base as of year-end 2023.

💵 Capitalization. CKRe's £5.1 million cash position, combined with the estimated $10 million in external funding, provides a finite but meaningful runway, though burn rate has not been disclosed. CKRe's full accounts to December 31, 2024, were filed in August 2025 (31 pages) and would contain more current financial data. The Pomanda financial health score of 1 out of 7 for CKRe, with a liabilities-to-assets ratio of 93.1%, suggests financial pressure at the UK entity level, though this may not reflect the consolidated group position if capitalization flows through Onda Holding S.A. or Onda AI, Inc.

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Risk factors

⚠️ Capacity dependency. Onda relies entirely on third-party capacity from Canopius, Argenta, Everest, and Crum & Forster. Loss of any carrier relationship — particularly if early loss experience is unfavorable — would directly impair its ability to write business. The multi-carrier, multi-market structure mitigates single-point failure but increases contractual complexity.

🚪 Talent retention — elevated risk. Co-founder Paul Calatayud departed after just 15 months in January 2024. The entire French operational leadership (Gatte, de Maistre, Allomong-Cottet) departed in 2025, with Gatte joining direct competitor Coalition France. This pattern of early senior departures is a significant due diligence concern and may signal strategic disagreements, compensation issues, or operational challenges. Retention of Alex Jomaa (CUO) and Ashley Hirst (President) is critical to continuity.

💸 Funding risk. At an estimated $10 million raised — with no disclosed Series A from institutional insurance-specialist investors — Onda is thinly capitalized relative to competitors such as Coalition ($755 million raised), Cowbell ($122 million), and At-Bay ($292 million). The ability to fund three-market operations, technology development, and marketing simultaneously is constrained. The absence of insurance-focused VCs (unlike peers backed by Zurich, Allianz, or Munich Re arms) may limit strategic capital access.

🏟️ Competitive risk. The cyber MGA market is crowded and consolidating. Coalition's August 2025 entry into France — hiring Onda's own France Managing Director — directly threatens Onda's position in that market. Established peers have deeper pockets, more data, and broader distribution.

🔄 Regulatory and aggregation risk. Operating across three jurisdictions with different regulatory regimes (FCA, ACPR, US state DOIs) creates compliance complexity. Cyber insurance inherently carries correlation and aggregation risk from systemic events such as cloud provider outages and widespread ransomware campaigns, which is managed at the carrier level but affects Onda's loss experience and capacity renewal.

🏗️ Corporate structure opacity. The relationship between Onda Holding S.A. (Luxembourg), Risk Capital S.A. (CKRe shareholder), Agora Group Holdings Limited (new CKRe PSC as of April 2025), and the Pleiad Group (where Ed McGough holds a CTO title) is not fully transparent. This layered, multi-jurisdictional structure creates due diligence complexity, even though it may be standard for a startup with multiple operating entities.

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Strategy and outlook

🧭 Strategic pillars. Onda's strategy rests on five visible pillars: technology-first underwriting using Navigator to replace traditional proposal forms; broker-exclusive distribution with a frictionless digital platform; progressive geographic expansion (UK to France to US); upmarket migration from SME to mid-market via Onda X; and continuous monitoring as a retention and risk-selection tool.

🇺🇸 US expansion. The October 2025 US launch with Crum & Forster capacity represents Onda's most ambitious expansion, entering the world's largest cyber insurance market. The hiring of Christopher Reynolds and AJ Jones (both with competitor experience) signals intent to build US distribution rapidly. The mid-market pivot via Onda X (targeting companies up to $1 billion in revenue with $5 million limits) increases average premium size but requires more sophisticated underwriting.

❓ Open diligence questions. French operations status: The entire French operational leadership departed in 2025, raising questions about whether replacements have been recruited and operations continue at full capacity. Pleiad Group relationship: The actual corporate relationship between Onda, the Pleiad Group, and the CKRe ownership chain (Risk Capital S.A., Agora Group Holdings Limited) remains unclear. Loss experience: After two-plus years of writing business, no loss experience metrics are publicly available. Capitalization adequacy: At $10 million raised, the company appears undercapitalized for a three-market MGA competing against well-funded peers, and whether additional fundraising is planned is unknown. Panorays exclusivity scope: Whether the exclusivity precludes Panorays from working with all cyber insurers or only within a specific segment or geography has not been clarified. CKRe December 2024 accounts: The full accounts filed in August 2025 at Companies House would reveal whether meaningful GWP or revenue growth occurred during 2024.

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Company timeline

📊 Onda — Key corporate events, 2022–2025

Date	Event
2022	Onda founded by Joe Lonsdale and Paul Calatayud
October 2022	Ashley Hirst joins as President and Managing Director
2022–2023	Convertible note ($500K) from K5 Global Technology; additional capital from 8VC, Northstar.VC, AAF Management, Bhansali Equities (total ~$10M per PitchBook)
Mid-2023	Alex Jomaa (ex-TMK) hired as CUO and Head of UK
~October 2023	UK launch — Onda goes live in London as Lloyd's-backed cyber MGA
January 2024	Co-founder Paul Calatayud departs
Early 2024	France launch — Onda SAS operational under Stanislas Chapron (President) and Frédéric Gatte (DG), with Canopius and Argenta as Lloyd's capacity
June 2024	Gina Allomong-Cottet and Alexis de Maistre join French operations
October 1, 2024	Exclusive two-year partnership with Panorays announced
November 2024	Five Sigma selected as AI-native claims management platform
March 12, 2025	Onda X mid-market product launched (UK and France) — Everest as carrier through Lloyd's Syndicate 2786
April 2025	Agora Group Holdings Limited becomes person of significant control of CKRe Limited
Mid-2025	Alexis de Maistre departs Onda France
August 2025	Frédéric Gatte departs to Coalition France; Gina Allomong-Cottet departs to Chubb
October 2025	US launch — Onda Insurance Services operational with Crum & Forster capacity; Christopher Reynolds and AJ Jones hired

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References

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Sources

This article draws on the following sources as catalogued in the original due-diligence document:

Regulatory filings and registries

• Companies House (UK) — CKRe Limited (03600683) annual accounts, filing history, and persons of significant control.
• ORIAS (France) — Registration #22005524 for Onda SAS as insurance intermediary.
• NIPR (US) — NPN 21439548 for Onda Insurance Services, Inc., with surplus lines licenses in 40+ states.

Company materials

• Onda (onda.ai) — Regional websites (/uk, /fr, /us) including product pages, broker information, licensing disclosures, and about pages.
• Bhansali SFO — Detailed portfolio page on Onda as an investment holding.

Investor and financial data providers

• PitchBook — Company profile and funding data (~$10M total raised).
• CB Insights — $500K convertible note from K5 Global Technology.
• Crunchbase — Seed round details.
• Pomanda — CKRe Limited financial health data and metrics.

Industry and trade press

• Insurance Insider — Alex Jomaa hiring from TMK.
• Insurance Edge — Onda X mid-market product launch (March 2025).
• Insurance Age — MGA mid-market cyber product launch.
• Insurance Business Magazine — Panorays partnership and Onda X coverage.
• Insurance Journal — Coalition France launch and Onda France departures.
• Intelligent Insurer — Cyber Insurance Awards Europe 2024 (triple finalist).
• La Tribune de l'Assurance — Onda French operations and staffing.
• Insurtech Insights, Crunchbase News — Competitor funding benchmarks (Coalition, Cowbell).

Partnership announcements

• Panorays — Exclusive two-year partnership blog post and Onda case study (October 2024).
• Five Sigma — AI-native claims management platform selection (November 2024).
• Coverager — Five Sigma partnership coverage.

Carrier and rating agency sources

• Everest Group — Lloyd's Syndicate 2786 establishment and ratings.
• AM Best, S&P Global — Financial strength ratings for Lloyd's, Everest, and Crum & Forster (referenced indirectly through carrier disclosures).