Rokstone has launched a new Lloyd's-backed underwriting division, betting that the US casualty market's deepening crisis in autonomous driving, electric vehicles and digital platforms has created an opening that generalist insurers cannot fill.
The international specialty managing general agent's new arm, Rokstone Velocity, will write liability business across the sharing economy, advanced mobility and other technology-enabled sectors – a segment where capacity has contracted sharply even as premium volumes surge.
Andrew Cooper (pictured above) has been named head of Rokstone Velocity. He previously served as managing director of innovation and technology at Pantheon and spent 23 years at Aon. Matt Higgins joins as senior underwriter from Apollo's iBott platform. The division will initially target the US market.
The global sharing economy was valued at $344 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $454 billion this year, with transportation accounting for 45% of the market.
Premiums tied to autonomous driving, connected and electric vehicles are forecast to grow eightfold to $0.57 trillion by 2030, Capgemini's World Property and Casualty Insurance Report found in 2023.
Yet the underwriting economics have been punishing. US commercial auto posted a $4.9 billion loss in 2024, extending a losing streak to 14 consecutive years, AM Best's market review noted. Social inflation is driving claim severity increases averaging 8% annually – more than double the 3% economic inflation rate.
The capacity gap is widening. Excess liability insurers are reducing maximum deployed limits to $5 million to $10 million per layer, WTW's Insurance Marketplace Realities 2025 report noted, with new MGA entrants unable to offset withdrawals. Third-party litigation funding, which WTW estimated will reach $31 billion annually by 2028, is compounding the pressure.
TransRe's Social Inflation Overview, published in 2025, recorded 135 nuclear verdicts above $10 million against corporate defendants in 2024 – a 52% jump over the prior year – totaling $31.3 billion. Commercial auto was identified as the epicenter.
Read more: New Rokstone policy seeks to protect brands from celebrity scandals
Rokstone said those conditions present an opening for specialist, data-led underwriting.
Rokstone Velocity's appetite spans embedded insurance within digital platforms, usage-based auto liability, casualty facilities for mobility operators, platform liability frameworks and hybrid wordings. Two dedicated facilities have been secured, backed by Lloyd's and an A-rated company market carrier.
James Potter, chairman of Rokstone Underwriting, said: "This is not about chasing growth, it's about building a disciplined, specialist portfolio in a segment where expertise genuinely matters."
Larry Burrows, head of North American casualty, said autonomous driving and digital platforms are reshaping how liability is created and defended. "We've built Rokstone Velocity to understand that complexity," Burrows said.
