Where tariffs bring chaos, ChAI brings cover.
In this episode, Robin Merttens speaks with Tristan Fletcher, co-founder and CEO of ChAI, about how his team is using financial market techniques and AI to build insurance products that protect manufacturers from volatile input costs. What began in the world of hedge funds and speculative trading is now helping companies like recyclers and food manufacturers hedge against unpredictable raw material prices.
Tristan explains how ChAI is transforming techniques once reserved for professional traders like satellite imagery, shipping data and price forecasting, into insurance-backed protection for real-world businesses. He also shares the story behind ChAI’s first deal, the long journey to secure reinsurance capacity and the challenge of winning over regulators.
This is an episode about pricing innovation, resilience in turbulent markets and what the insurance industry can do to keep pace with uncertainty. Plus, you’ll learn a new word: Eigenzeit—and it might just reshape how you think about timing in insurance.
Key Talking Points
- Democratising financial tools: why ChAI is bringing hedge fund-style analytics to manufacturers
- Turning speculation into protection: how AI price forecasting powers a new insurance product
- From cocoa to copper: insuring raw material volatility in food, packaging and recycling sectors
- Structuring the product: how ChAI created insurance that mirrors price hedging without regulatory red flags
- Regulatory hurdles: overcoming concerns about market risk and building legal confidence in a new model
- First deal breakthrough: how ChAI secured capacity from a major US reinsurer and wrote its first risk
- ESG implications: how the product supports the circular economy and reduces stockpiling
- The US vs the UK: why American risk carriers moved faster to back the product
- Market appetite – how volatility and geopolitical shocks like tariffs are driving inbound demand
- From startup to scale: why ChAI now needs more brokers, insurers and customers on board
If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. You can also contact Tristan Fletcher on LinkedIn to start a conversation!
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Continuing Professional Development
This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme.
By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives:
- Measure the potential benefits of price volatility protection on supply chain resilience and inventory management.
- Define the role of reinsurance in enabling innovative risk-transfer solutions like raw material price insurance.
- Identify the sectors and commodity risks best suited to ChAI’s product, including recycling, packaging and FMCG manufacturing.
If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 350 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast.
To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant & Robin Merttens