Driving Profitable Growth: Bowhead Specialty’s Results with Kalepa

At Bowhead Specialty, success is built on three pillars: hiring the best underwriters in the industry, keeping underwriting profitability as the North Star, and delivering best-in-class service to distribution partners.

To help achieve their goals, Bowhead partnered with Kalepa, leveraging our AI underwriting platform to enhance efficiency, consistency, and profitability across its casualty portfolio.

🎥 Watch how Bowhead transformed its underwriting operations and gained a competitive advantage with Kalepa.

The Challenge

Bowhead’s underwriters were managing complex submissions across multiple systems and data sources. While the team was highly experienced, they needed a platform that could unify data, strengthen underwriting discipline, and support profitable growth - while mainatining speed and quality of service.

The leadership team also wanted to ensure that any technology investment truly empowered their underwriters, rather than overwhelming them with unnecessary complexity.

The Solution

Bowhead turned to Kalepa’s AI underwriting platform to bring all underwriting research, data, and guidelines into a single, trusted workspace.

Kalepa’s platform enables Bowhead underwriters to:

• Access all relevant data and context in one place
• Surface critical information missing from broker submissions
• Apply consistent appetite and guidelines to steer portfolios
• Quote faster while maintaining accuracy and discipline

From the first demo to active use in under a month, Bowhead’s team using Kalepa to strengthen underwriting quality and operational visibility. The Kalepa team worked closely with Bowhead to integrate the platform smoothly.

The Results

Since adopting Kalepa, Bowhead has achieved:

• Making better decisions, faster: Underwriters access better research and data in one unified platform, quoting quickly without sacrificing quality.
• Avoiding unprofitable risks: Surfacing critical information missing from broker submissions to strengthen Bowhead’s book profile and reduce exposure.
• Ensuring consistent underwriting discipline: Built-in appetite and guidelines help steer portfolios that both teams and reinsurers trust.
• Attracting top underwriting talent: Kalepa signals Bowhead’s investment in empowering underwriters to grow and succeed.

“One of the really hard things to quantify in this business is how valuable it is not to write bad risk. Our book profile has improved with Kalepa because it helps us avoid heightened risk profiles with information that might not have been present in the broker's submission.”‍

— Derek Broaddus, Head of Casualty, Bowhead Specialty

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A Platform That Empowers People

Bowhead’s investment in Kalepa is also an investment in its people. New underwriters cite the platform as a signal that Bowhead is committed to empowering talent with technology that supports their growth

“When I was interviewing for Bowhead and everyone talked about Kalepa, it was huge, and I think that was a big draw in factor for me to see Bowhead was investing in tech like this, and it felt like they were going to invest in me as well, in my growth.”

— Jackie Arrondo, Underwriter

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Looking Ahead

For Bowhead, adopting AI isn’t about hype - it’s about equipping underwriters with better data to make better decisions. Together with Kalepa, Bowhead continues to set a new standard for what modern underwriting can look like: efficient, consistent, and precise.