Insurance holding company Ambac Financial Group, Inc. saw its Cirratta insurance distribution division enter 2025 with more than $1.5 billion of third-party capacity, sourced from a range of reinsurance market participants and third-party investors.
The Cirrata insurance distribution arm consists of a range of independently managed MGAs and MGUs that underwrite specialty property and casualty classes of business and it quadrupled in size for Ambac in 2024, growing from four businesses to 19.Key to this expansion was the acquisition of a 60% controlling stake in Beat Capital Partners Limited, the London-based long duration re/insurance investor, underwriter and MGA incubation platform.
Historically, Beat Capital Partners had been supported by ILS capital from certain insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors and funds, including Canadian pension Ontario Teachers’.
Beat had launched 13 Underwriting Franchises and MGAs in the past and also has certain management rights for Syndicates 4242 and 1416 at Lloyd’s, as well as an exclusive capacity relationship with a Bermuda reinsurance platform, Cadenza Re.
Third-party capital had always been a supporting capacity source for Beat Capital’s syndicates and also Cadenza Re, with ILS investor support seen to be part of the overall mix.
One of the London Bridge ILS deals that took place back in 2021 channelled third-party investor funds into the Lloyd’s market for Beat, with pension fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) providing capital to a Lloyd’s Member and one of the syndicates supported being Beat’s Syndicate 1416.
We’d also learned that OTPP held a board seat on Beat’s Bermuda-based reinsurance company Cadenza Re, suggesting the pension may also be (or have been) an investor-backer of that vehicle as well.
Beat had benefited from backing provided by ILS fund managers, institutional investors, pension funds and high-net worth investors and now its parent has explained the scope of third-party backing, in capacity terms, for the business and rest of the Cirrata Group.
In 2025, with the acquisition of Beat and launch of six more MGAs, the Cirrata insurance distribution platform increased its revenue by 93% to nearly $100 million.
The Beat acquisition is seen as a meaningful driver of access to risk capital for Ambac and the Cirrata distribution platform.
Ambac explained, “Having access to such a broad range of managed capacity is a strategic differentiator for Cirrata.
It enables us to leverage the overall depth and breadth of insurance, reinsurance and ILS markets as well as the duration of third-party capacity to the platform.”
The company added, “The Cirrata platform entered 2025 with more than $1.5 billion of committed third-party capacity from a diversified panel of insurers, reinsurers, private capital, and pension funds.
“Over 60% of that support has been behind us for four or more years, which we view as external validation of the quality of the underwriting of our MGAs.”
This capacity, when added to existing sources for Cirrata, drove a 114% increase in premium placed in 2024, reaching $493 million for the insurance distribution division of Ambac.
While net commissions earned and EBITDA reached just over $50 million for the Cirrata business.
As the Cirrata business scales and especially with the Beat acquisition, Ambac has gained a meaningful source of third-party capital support to expand its specialty P&C operations.
Sourcing efficient capital from across the third-party landscape, Cirrata now provides Ambac a platform through which it can engage with institutional capital sources, and this capital light approach is now adding meaningful earnings for the group as well.
Third-party capital is now a significant lever for the Ambac business, enabling it to partner with investors and further expand its underwriting partnerships and portfolio.
John Cavanagh, Chairman of Beat Capital Partners, and Naveen Anand, President of Cirrata Group, told us in an interview last year that third-party and ILS capital are expected to remain cornerstone capacity providers, being fundamental to the business model.
For the investors and third-party capital providers backing the Cirrata Group, the relationship provides access to the returns of diversified sources of specialty P&C insurance risk from a range of differentiated underwriters.
