LONDON, UK – Davies, the leading specialist professional services and technology business, serving insurance and highly regulated markets, today announced that it has acquired Afirm Solutions (“Afirm”), the specialist provider of premium audit, loss control inspection and risk mitigation services for insurance carriers, insurance distribution platforms, and third-party administrators (TPAs).
Headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S., Afirm is a nationwide full-service provider of premium audit and loss control inspection services across personal & commercial lines of insurance throughout all 50 U.S. states & parts of Canada. Afirm is the only vendor providing premium audit and loss control with operations in Canada. Prior to this transaction, Afirm was a wholly owned subsidiary of Kaufman Financial Group, a global network of companies dedicated to shaping the insurance industry. The Kaufman Group’s flagship brand is Burns & Wilcox, an industry-leading provider of specialty insurance solutions with over $2 billion in annual premium.
Afirm will form part of Davies U.S. led by CEO, Matt Button. Afirm President Mark de Waal will continue to lead the business, joining the Insurance Services leadership team within Davies U.S. All Afirm employees will continue in their roles within Davies U.S.
In recent years, Davies has established and expanded its operations in the U.S. through a combination of strong organic and M&A growth, with the firm now boasting claims solutions, insurance operations, and consulting & technology capability spanning Property & Casualty, Life & Health, and Transportation insurance markets. Davies’ offering in the U.S. includes a full range of TPA and loss adjusting solutions across all 50 states, specialized insurance operations & technology consulting as well as captive management, auditing, actuarial, subrogation, excess claims management and risk & inspection solutions.
Globally, Davies’ 6,500+ colleagues operate across ten countries, including the UK and the U.S. The business delivers professional services and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation & risk, customer experience, human capital, digital transformation & change management. Over the past ten years Davies has grown its annual revenues more than 20-fold, investing heavily in research & development (R&D), innovation & automation, colleague development, and client service. Today the group serves more than 1,500 insurance, financial services, public sector, and other highly regulated clients.
Dan Saulter, Group CEO, Davies commented: “I’m delighted to welcome Mark and the entire Afirm team to Davies. The business has an excellent track-record of delivering strong technological capabilities and is well-known in the market for its ability to innovate & evolve.
“Many of our insurance & highly regulated clients are seeking to work with fewer strategic partners, and to build long-term relationships across a range of services to support their growth and delivery. Bringing Afirm’s premium audit & loss control teams together with our existing insurance operations in North America enables us to take an expanded specialist & tech-enabled audit and loss control offering to our 1,200+ insurance & highly regulated clients globally.”
Mark de Waal, President of Afirm added: “I’m really pleased that Afirm is joining Davies. Over recent years, Davies has accelerated into the U.S. and continued to invest in technology and innovation for its clients. By combining our businesses, we have a stronger service proposition for insurance clients who are seeking to engage with fewer trusted partners that heavily invest in technology to deliver time sensitive and accurate premium audit, inspection & risk mitigation reports. The cultural fit with Davies was an important factor as we planned for our company’s future and joining Davies will present our employees with more career development opportunities and an exciting future as the company continues to grow.”
Waller Helms Advisors served as exclusive financial advisor to Kaufman Financial Group and Afirm in connection with this transaction.