Andrei Craciunescu
Andrei Craciunescu, Founder of RiskCube

The insurance industry is struggling to keep up with the growing impact of climate crises. Hurricanes, floods, and wildfires drive up claims and reduce property values. Meanwhile, leading property insurers are pulling out of vulnerable regions, while brokers and independent insurance agents lack the tools and data to help their clients secure appropriate coverage.

Recognising the need for a better solution, risk & insurance analyst Andrei Craciunescu founded RiskCube, an AI-driven platform that helps navigate these complex, climate-driven risks. It connects brokers to traditional and alternative insurance options, making coverage possible in high-risk areas where conventional models fall short. In doing so, it's reshaping risk management and bringing predictability during climate uncertainty.

Andrei's Background in Risk Modeling

After graduating with a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Munich, Andrei's career in risk management began in 2019 when he joined Willis Towers Watson (WTW), a leading global insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm. He became the first employee in its newly established risk & analytics division, which was created to help CFOs and risk managers enhance client risk assessment protocols.

This was a crucial opportunity, as risk assessment has historically been the domain of insurance companies, with brokers merely acting as intermediaries between clients and carriers. Realising this limitation, Andrei took on the challenge of helping to build out WTW's risk & analytics division in German-speaking countries (DACH).

'There was no roadmap for the future of the division. We had to create everything from scratch," Andrei recalls. "Looking back, I'm glad my contributions turned it into a thriving team that effectively helps businesses manage their risks.'

Andrei was promoted five times within five years, rising to senior associate. Furthermore, WTW would fund his PhD at the Technical University of Munich, where he conducted government-backed research on AI applications in director and officer liability risk assessment.

During his time at WTW, Andrei gained firsthand experience in designing and coding cutting-edge risk assessment models — skills that would prove essential for the next stage of his career.

Identifying the Impacts of Natural Disaster Risk on Brokers

After five years in the insurance sector, Andrei saw how traditional brokerage models struggled to keep up with the growing complexity of financial risks, particularly those tied to climate change.

For example, climate-related losses rose from 31% to 38% of total insured losses over the past decade, with events like floods and wildfires driving up insurance claims, reducing property values, and making historical risk assessment data unreliable.

Insurers are responding to the rise in climate-related losses by dramatically raising premiums or pulling out of high-risk areas altogether. In California, carriers withdrew their wildfire policies just before the 2025 Los Angeles fires, while in Florida, many insurers dropped out after its latest hurricane season.

This growing trend has placed brokers in a tough spot, forcing them to navigate limited options and high premiums to secure coverage for clients in high-risk areas. In response, Andrei has built a platform that broadens insurance brokers' access to coverage options for properties in extreme conditions. He secured funding from Y Combinator, the premier startup accelerator that launched companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Coinbase to bring his project to life. YC provided Andrei with funding, mentorship, and resources to refine and scale his vision, which led to the creation of RiskCube.

RiskCube: An AI-Powered Approach to Insurance

RiskCube is a brokerage platform designed to help insurance brokers and independent insurance agents streamline the coverage process by unifying two traditionally separate tasks: risk assessment, where insurers evaluate climate and property risks, and insurance placement, where brokers secure the best and most appropriate coverage for their clients.

Andrei explains, 'Risk assessment and insurance placement are typically separate components, and as a result, most brokers lack in-depth expertise to evaluate the risk effectively. RiskCube visually represents business property risk at the street address level.'

RiskCube streamlines the insurance placement process by evaluating business property risk (particularly climate risk) and then using AI to analyse client and property data, identifying the most relevant coverage options based on their unique circumstances. This allows brokers to receive tailored recommendations that factor in conventional policies and alternative coverage strategies for high-risk properties.

Among these alternatives are:

  • Parametric insurance, which pays clients out when predetermined conditions are met
  • Weather derivatives, which compensate clients when extreme weather exceeds certain limits, even if there's no physical damage
  • Insurance-linked securities, which transfer high-risk exposure from insurers to third-party investors

RiskCube also aids in risk management, pulling information from real-time data sources to generate detailed risk profiles and analysing relevant factors like historical weather patterns and regional economic trends. This allows brokers to assess a property's risk more accurately, identifying potential vulnerabilities and forecasting future dangers in ways that traditional models often miss.

These measures effectively help brokers and independent insurance agents present their high-risk clients with tailored, flexible coverage options and gain access to informed, data-driven risk profiles — all within a unified workflow.

Promoting a New Model for a Changing Market

Andrei has been vocal about better insurance solutions since launching RiskCube and as climate disasters become more frequent. His goal is to help make insurance a built-in part of pricing models so that risk is factored in from the start rather than being a separate process — a practice known as embedded insurance. He also hopes the platform's risk assessment protocols won't just insure high-risk properties but help advise against construction in vulnerable, disaster-prone areas.

Andrei shared these ideas at significant industry events, including the latest World Economic Forum in Davos, where he discussed how AI tools like RiskCube can address financial challenges tied to climate change. Historically, the insurance market has rarely been a central topic of discussion at significant events like Davos, but its importance is now increasingly recognised.

Safeguarding the Insurance Sector from Climate Risks

Andrei Craciunescu is working to modernise how brokers and independent insurance agents navigate climate-driven challenges. As extreme events drive insurance markets into uncharted territory, his work equips brokers and agents with the tools to secure coverage in high-risk markets, ensuring businesses aren't left without options.

Connect with Andrei on LinkedIn to learn more, and check out RiskCube to see how its AI capabilities assist brokers in a changing climate.

Artificial Intelligence