A specialist in Middle Office solutions, Apidata is an insurtech company that industrialises and secures data flows from personal insurance management systems, whether operated directly or on a delegated basis. The company is now inviting its insurance partners to take a stake in its capital—not to fund its growth, but to safeguard the independence and sovereignty of its solution. Co-founders and executives Christophe Burlot and Michel Ramos explain the rationale behind this move.

L’Argus de l’assurance: You have announced the creation of the Via-Bi holding company to bring insurers into Apidata’s capital. Is this to finance your growth?
Christophe Burlot: Apidata does not need to raise funds to grow. Since its creation in 2012, the company has self-funded the development of its Middle Office solution, which now processes over 60 million data flows and oversees €3 billion in operations each year. The purpose of Via-Bi lies elsewhere: it is about securing Apidata’s long-term trajectory, preserving its independence, and further embedding our industrialisation and automation solution for delegated management within the insurance ecosystem.

L’Argus de l’assurance: How so?
Michel Ramos: By opening up 20% of Apidata’s capital to our insurance partners. We are committed to maintaining the company’s independence while reassuring our partners about the long-term sustainability of our solution. For large insurance groups, working with a 15-employees insurtech can be perceived as a risk. Taking a stake in Apidata enables them to be closely aligned with our governance and strategic direction. They will not be involved in day-to-day operations, but they will support our development.

L’Argus de l’assurance: This is quite an unusual approach.
CB: It is. The proposal initially surprised our insurance partners, but it also resonated with them. Insurtechs typically raise funds to develop their solutions and bring them to market. We moved beyond that stage some time ago: we already work with major clients (Audiens, Klesia, Groupama Gan Vie, Aésio Mutuelle, the Vyv Group, among others), and we intend to continue self-financing our development. That said, we put ourselves in our partners’ shoes: they entrust a small company with the management of highly strategic data, with significant challenges in terms of security, compliance and sovereignty. We want to address those concerns by offering a new kind of partnership.

L’Argus de l’assurance: What does “sovereignty” mean in this context—a term increasingly heard in public debate?
CB: Sovereignty is often framed in political, even nationalistic terms. We take a far more pragmatic view: a solution is sovereign when its infrastructure and technologies comply with market regulations, without any external regulatory framework being able to interfere or allow data to be captured or used for purposes other than those for which it was entrusted.
MR: All of Apidata’s technologies are developed in-house and fully owned by us—we rely on no external licences. We are also developing our own artificial intelligence tools: there is no question of our methods or documents being absorbed into third-party AI datasets. In addition, we own our servers, which are hosted in France, and we know exactly where they are. From day one, we have been committed to retaining full control.

L’Argus de l’assurance: There is clearly no urgent need to open up Apidata’s capital. Why now?
CB: Because Apidata is reaching a new stage of its development. For the past three years, we have been working with leading insurers who entrust us with strategic operations. We want to reassure them about the technical and commercial sustainability of our solution. We have seen too many innovative companies change their model or significantly increase their prices after being acquired. Bringing insurers into Apidata’s capital is a way of demonstrating the robustness of our model: we remain fully in control of our strategy while strengthening our position in the Middle Office segment, enabling insurers to better manage their risks and performance.

L’Argus de l’assurance: What are the next steps?
MR: We are currently finalising the shareholders’ agreement with a view to completing the first transaction by September. Our discussions with insurance partners show that they fully understand the philosophy behind this initiative: strengthening relationships built on trust, in support of independence, sovereignty and long-term sustainability.