When large-scale disasters hit rural Australia, the accommodation gap that follows is a cascading problem for insurers. Firemark Ventures, IAG’s corporate venture capital arm, has taken a position in Spacecube, a Melbourne-based manufacturer of modular structures that can be assembled on a damaged property within hours of a disaster event, allowing policyholders to remain on-site through the rebuilding process.
The deal follows a field trial in regional Victoria after the January 2026 bushfires, in which Spacecube units were placed on affected properties while families rebuilt. The partnership extends across IAG’s brand portfolio, which includes NRMA Insurance, CGU, WFI Insurance, and RACV.
Jarrod Hill, CEO of CGU and WFI Insurance, framed the investment around the immediacy of shelter needs following displacement. “Spacecube has the potential to enable rapid deployment of on-property accommodation, delivering essential support to rural communities when it matters most,” Hill said.
For rural property claims, displacement is not a neutral event. Farms, workshops, and other rural enterprises are typically inseparable from the dwelling, meaning a family forced off the land can generate both personal and commercial losses simultaneously. Remaining on the property enables people to care for livestock, stay connected to their community, and maintain operations – all of which bear on the length and complexity of a rural claim. When a major event affects a wide area, nearby towns can absorb only a limited number of displaced households, placing further pressure on an already stretched local resource pool.
Spacecube units address that dynamic directly. Each structure arrives flat-packed and can be erected on almost any terrain, including properties where access roads remain compromised. Units operate independently of the grid via battery storage and solar generation and connect to a property’s existing rainwater and septic systems. Where part of the original structure remains habitable, Spacecube modules can be integrated with the intact sections, or deployed as a standalone shelter with dedicated sleeping, living, and wet areas.
The January 2026 bushfire pilot gave IAG and Spacecube a live operational test before the partnership was formalised. The deployment enabled multiple families to remain on their properties while rebuilding and stay within their community. Spacecube CEO Mark Davies said the trial validated the product's performance in conditions that could not be simulated. “Our modular technology was built for rapid deployment in complex conditions. Working with organisations like IAG means we can help deliver not just structures, but stability, safety, and dignity for communities recovering from disaster,” Davies said.
While the pilot was limited to rural and regional customers, IAG indicated that the Spacecube model is not necessarily confined to that market. The company said it would assess viability in urban environments and commercial applications and identified a potential extension into New Zealand as a separate line of future development, though neither timeline nor scale was specified.
The Spacecube investment occupies the one phase of disaster response not yet represented in Firemark Ventures’ existing portfolio. Prior investments include 7Analytics, which delivers geoscience-based flood and landslide risk modelling at the level of individual assets – a capability with direct application to property underwriting and exposure management – and Near Space Labs, which uses stratospheric balloons to capture high-frequency aerial imagery after an event, supporting rapid damage assessment and situational awareness. With Spacecube, the portfolio now spans from pre-event hazard prediction through to post-event on-property recovery.
Firemark Ventures general partner Scott Gunther said the sequencing was deliberate. “This latest investment by Firemark Ventures expands our deliberately constructed disaster-resilience portfolio that spans prediction, detection, assessment, and now rapid on-property recovery,” Gunther said.
That portfolio logic is reinforced by data on how frequently Australian businesses and households are now encountering climate-related disruption. According to IAG’s own commissioned research – the Resilient Futures Report, published June 17 and based on a survey of more than 2,400 consumers and small businesses – 48% of Australian small and medium-sized enterprises reported being affected by extreme weather in the preceding 12 months. The same research found persistent gaps in business continuity planning and insurance coverage review across that cohort. The report also recorded that 52.7% of consumers said climate risk was influencing where they choose to live and work, a figure that rose to 55.8% in New South Wales.
IAG managing director and CEO Nick Hawkins said the findings reflect a structural shift in how Australians are experiencing risk. “Risk is no longer something Australians think about hypothetically, it is something many are experiencing in real time. Strengthening Australia’s resilience means helping people better anticipate disruption, take practical steps to prepare, and recover more quickly when setbacks occur,” Hawkins said.
For insurers, the data points to a customer base absorbing climate-related shocks with diminishing capacity to self-insure against them – the same conditions that make keeping a rural policyholder on their land a materially different claims outcome from relocating them to temporary accommodation.
