New York-based holding company Tiptree said it has secured a $200 million strategic investment from Warburg Pincus for The Fortegra Group, its specialty insurer subsidiary.

Plans call for using the investment to help fuel further growth with a focus on the specialty admitted and E&S lines.

Tiptree Executive Chairman Michael Barnes said in prepared remarks that the investment will help accelerate Fortegra’s growth and also help repay debt and recapitalize both companies’ balance sheets.

Rick Kahlbaugh, Fortegra’s CEO, promised the investment will trigger many good things to come for the company.

“Our objective has always been to build an insurance enterprise that generates exceptional returns for its investors by complementing underwriting results with fee revenue,” Kahlbaugh said in prepared remarks. “This transaction represents the collaboration of industry experience, capital and investment acumen that will be the catalyst to accelerate Fortegra’s growth as a global specialty insurer.”

Tiptree asserts that Fortegra, which is based in Florida, is “a rapidly growing and consistently profitable” specialty insurer, underwriting over $2 billion of gross written premiums and premium equivalents annually.

The business underwrites and administers a variety of specialty insurance products and warranty solutions across the United States and Europe.

Warburg Pincus’s investment gives it an approximately 24 percent ownership in Fortegra on a fully diluted basis and is expected to close in the 2022 first quarter. The firm has been an active investor in the insurance sector globally, with investments in companies such as Aeolus Re, Arch Capital, Cox Insurance Holdings, Foundation Risk Partners, ICICI Lombard Insurance, Max Life, McGill and Partners, PetPlan, RenaissanceRe, SBI General Insurance and Watford Holdings, among others, according to the deal announcement.

Source: Tiptree/Fortegra