Denver-based insurance technology company Highwing Inc. has appointed a new CEO.
Jim McKenney is now the company’s top executive officer, taking the lead ahead of what the company anticipates will be a period of growth. The company’s co-founder, Erik Mitisek, will continue as its president.
“I’m joining at a time where a lot of hard work has been done, I think Highwing is really well situated,” McKenney said. “Erik and the existing leadership team have done an immense job of building out the foundation.”
Highwing offers a data technology platform to insurance brokers and carriers. It specializes in property and casualty insurance for medium- and large-size companies. The company’s customers have been early adopters — what McKenney called “early innovators” — thus far, but McKenney and the rest of the team will look to market the company’s services to a broader customer base.
“Our main objective is to increase the volume that goes through the platform,” McKenney said. “I think for the last year-plus, the focus was building out the capability set. I think it’s well situated, and now is really the time for Erik and I to increase our presence and brand in the market simply by getting out and marketing and meeting with carriers.”
McKenney was previously executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Intellect Design Arena Ltd., another insurance technology company. He also led an 800-person team at Liberty Mutual Insurance.
“I think my 20-plus years of experience in the insurance industry, particularly on the carrier side, gives me a good lens into leading the organization,” McKenney said.
The company employs about 30 people right now, and while McKenney couldn't estimate how much that number would grow, he did say he expects it to rise. Highwing is evaluating its office needs in Denver right now — it is in a remote-work model with limited office space — and McKenney expects its footprint to grow as the company expands.
“We love our presence in the Denver area and expect that will continue to grow,” McKenney said.
The company raised $3.25 million in debt financing in the final months of 2021, money that it can use to expand its offerings and fund its marketing efforts. Highwing has the relatively short runway typical of similarly sized companies, and it will likely start planning its next capital raise — at a significantly larger size than its previous fundraising efforts — in the next quarter. The next rounds will likely take place in six to 12 months, McKenney said.
Companies like Highwing have benefitted from increasing capital availability to Denver-area startups in recent years. While equity funding for private ventures in the Denver area moderated somewhat in the first quarter, it still has a lot of momentum coming out of a record-shattering 2021.
In fact, Denver-based venture capital firm Markd recently raised its inaugural $100 million fund specifically to invest in insurance technology startups.
