SAN FRANCISCO – August 22, 2017 – Today, Metabiota, the pioneer in epidemic risk modeling, announced that two market innovators, Munich Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurers and expert on global risk solutions and In-Q-Tel, Inc. (IQT), the strategic investor that accelerates the development of technologies to support the U.S. intelligence community, have signed strategic agreements with Metabiota.

The news comes as Metabiota commercially launches the industry’s first ever platform for estimating epidemic preparedness and risk, including the frequency, severity, duration and cost of outbreaks. With a powerful combination of epidemic risk analytics, historical data, disease scenarios and insights from public health analysts and global epidemiologists, Metabiota’s platform is enabling the insurance industry to offer new epidemic insurance solutions by delivering capabilities that allow insurers to better understand and underwrite risk.

Nearly 100 years since the deadliest pandemic in history afflicted one-third of the global population, the world is still vulnerable to health risks, as evidenced by recent outbreaks of Zika, Avian Influenza, Ebola and the resurgence of previously dormant viruses like Measles and Cholera. In addition to its impact on human health, infectious diseases inflict a tremendous economic toll on national infrastructures. The Zika virus alone could end up costing Latin America and the Caribbean up to $18 billion, according to a report from the United Nations.  Metabiota’s platform is helping governments and organizations to better understand the threats posed by future outbreaks, while providing them with the data and modeling tools needed to gauge the potential financial impact of a major health event.

“We believe that when risk can be properly assessed and mitigated by insurance, the world will be more prepared and able to manage these events,” said Bill Rossi, CEO of Metabiota. “At the same time, we’re helping the insurance industry build new revenue streams at a time when their core business is under threat by new business models and technologies. Metabiota’s use of big data and software to model epidemics is truly revolutionizing the insurance industry.”

With an intuitive, cloud-based platform, Metabiota is providing risk managers and underwriters with unprecedented insight into how diseases propagate and help them quantify the risk posed by epidemics. The platform brings together a 100-year historical disease database with a unique catalog of more than 20 million risk scenarios describing the number of cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and employee absences to an epidemic event.

“Metabiota’s analytics and intelligence help us to push the boundaries of insurability by protecting companies and local economies from the financial loss related to epidemics”, said Tom van den Brulle, Head of Innovation, Munich Re. “This really is the next frontier for the insurance industry – given the high risk of infectious disease outbreaks, it is imperative that we find new ways to manage and finance these risks for our customers.”

“Infectious disease outbreaks present a growing security threat to the United States,” said Eugene Chiu, Partner, Investments, IQT. “Metabiota provides capabilities to better understand infectious disease risk via open source data fusion and sophisticated epidemic simulations.”

Metabiota’s innovative approach to data includes a proprietary global preparedness index that measures national capacity to detect and respond to outbreaks. The Metabiota Preparedness Index empowers the insurance industry with more intelligence into how each country (and neighboring countries) are equipped to manage a health crisis, based on public health infrastructure, physical and communications infrastructure, bureaucratic and public management capacities, financial resources to underwrite disease response, and risk communication. The World Bank has referenced this Index as a possible way to better assess the future of risk.

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