Newfront to combine with ABD for modern insurance experience

By Pavithra R

Newfront Insurance, the cutting-edge technology-enabled brokerage, and ABD Insurance and Financial Services, an innovator in employee benefits, insurance and financial services, announced entering into an agreement to combine, redefining the insurance experience for both clients and insurance profess ionals.

The merger values the combined company, which will be called Newfront, at $1.35 bn and is expected to close by the end of August.

“We are intent on modernizing insurance and transforming it into something effortless that delights clients, insurance professionals, and trading partners. By combining Newfront’s technology platform and data analytics capabilities with ABD’s world-class insurance professionals, we set a new standard for risk management and employee wellbeing and engagement,” said Spike Lipkin, Chief Executive Officer of Newfront.

The combination of these 2 companies will bring together 600 employees, serve over 10,000 clients, and place more than $2 bn in premiums annually. The new company ‘Newfront’ and will provide clients with an experience that is more transparent, data-driven, and real-time, translating into a lower total cost of risk and greater insights for clients.

Newfront’s headquarters will remain in San Francisco and will be led by Spike Lipkin as CEO, Kurt de Grosz as Executive Chairman, Brian Hetherington as President, and Gordon Wintrob as CTO. The combined company’s veteran executive team combines experience at insurance brokerage leaders and at Silicon Valley innovators like Uber, Intuit, and Twitter to build the modern insurance experience.

“We are on a mission to ensure the complex disciplines of risk management and insurance brokerage are as data-driven and seamless as requesting an Uber or communicating over Slack. We are privileged to work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, and they turn to us for the same level of innovative problem-solving that they bring to their own operations. Combining with Newfront will bring together highly skilled insurance experts with cutting-edge technologists to create a fundamentally different and better insurance experience,” said ABD Chairman Brian Hetherington.