Accelerant Holdings Inc., a provider of software for the specialty insurance market, has agreed to be taken private by Thoma Bravo.

The companies announced the $4.4 billion transaction today. It values Accelerant at $20.25 per share, a 49% premium to its last unaffected stock price.

Specialty insurance covers high-value items that usually aren’t protected by standard policies. That category encompasses a wide variety of assets ranging from paintings to airplanes. Notably, data centers are also covered by specialty insurance.

Insurers don’t issue specialty insurance policies directly to customers. Instead, they go through intermediaries called managing general agents, or MGAs. An MGA serves a similar role as an insurance broker but has broader responsibilities: it can issue policies without requesting the insurer’s approval every time.

Accelerant operates a cloud platform that connects MGAs with insurers. MGAs can access the capital they need to underwrite policies via five-year agreements. Accelerant also works with other capital providers besides insurers, including institutional investors and reinsurers. The latter companies specialize in limiting insurers’ losses when a large number of customers file claims at once.

The MGAs that use Accelerant’s platform upload data about the policies they issue. The software cleans the data, enriches it with external information and turns it into dashboards. Insurers can use the dashboards to optimize their business operations.

Accelerant displays high-level sales metrics such as insurance premium revenue and customer retention. Users can drill into the dashboards to bring up more granular data. For example, Accelerant can point out the markets and asset types with the biggest contribution to an insurer’s top line growth.

The company provides artificial intelligence features that automate certain aspects of customers’ work. Its AI identifies risky policies that may create financial challenges for an insurer. It also helps users optimize policy prices.

Accelerant says its platform is used by 314 MGAs and insurers worldwide. It processes 1.2 million records per month for those customers.

The company reported its second quarter results in conjunction with today’s acquisition announcement. Revenue jumped 62.9% on a year-over-year basis, or about 30% more than analysts had expected, to $356.9 million. The company’s adjusted earnings of 32 cents per share also topped the consensus estimate. 

“Returning to private ownership with Thoma Bravo’s technology and software expertise, coupled with its vast financial and strategic resources, will enable us to make investments that further position our unique, data fueled platform to be the rails on which specialty insurance runs,” said Accelerant Chief Executive Officer Jeff Radke.

Thoma Bravo stated that the acquisition is “currently expected” to close in the first half of 2027. The private equity firm will pay Accelerant a fee equivalent to 6% of the acquisition price per year in the event of regulatory approval delays.

Image: Accelerant