Halo launches AI-driven equine risk, pricing, and micro-duration cover
Halo has gone live with an AI-powered platform that predicts equine performance and embeds flexible insurance around real events. Built with reinsurance support from Guy Carpenter and underwriting from Markel, the launch pairs real-time risk scoring with short-duration policies that match how horses are actually bought, shipped, and raced.
For insurance teams, this is a clean test case for event-based exposure, dynamic pricing, and embedded distribution-all in one product stack.
What's new (and why it matters)
- Real-time risk and valuation: Live scores inform pricing, selection, and cover limits at the point of need.
- Event-based cover windows: Policies activate for minutes or hours, not months. Think race day or transport segments.
- Embedded distribution: Protection offered exactly where buyers make decisions-auctions, yards, race entries.
Micro-duration products
- Race-Day Cover: Insure a single race window-from leaving the yard to safe return, or as narrow as parade ring to finishing post.
- Fall of Hammer Cover: Instant protection from the moment a yearling is purchased in the ring until it arrives at its new yard.
Pricing is linked to Halo's AI-driven risk scores and live valuations, allowing insurers to quote and bind fairly within tight exposure windows.
Hailey: the AI bloodstock agent
Hailey is Halo's GPT-based advisor for sales, breeding, and race planning. It makes data-led recommendations that go beyond instinct, helping owners and agents reduce selection bias and time-to-decision. For carriers and brokers, this signals richer pre-bind data and clearer audit trails on why a risk was accepted, priced, or declined.
Underwriting and claims implications
- Pricing: Shift from static rating to dynamic scoring that updates with form, training data, travel, and venue conditions.
- Exposure management: Micro-windows reduce time-at-risk and enable more granular capacity allocation across a race card or sale.
- Triggers and wording: Clear start/stop conditions (e.g., "parade ring to finishing post") simplify coverage intent and dispute prevention.
- Claims operations: Short events with strong telemetry and timestamping support faster adjudication and fewer gray areas.
- Distribution: Embedded offers at point-of-sale and entry systems create new premium flow without heavy broker friction.
Market context
The equine insurance market is estimated at £450-475 million in 2023, with forecasts pointing to £1.3-1.5 billion by 2031-33. Growth is tied to digital distribution and data-led underwriting. Halo targets this shift by combining predictive AI, micro-duration cover, and embedded placement in a single platform.
What insurers, MGAs, and brokers should evaluate
- Data rights and provenance: Confirm licenses and governance for training, telemetry, and third-party feeds.
- Model risk management: Bias testing, backtesting against historical outcomes, and human-in-the-loop controls.
- Filing and compliance: Event-based forms, clear activation language, and local approvals for UK/IE first, then EU/APAC/NA.
- Capacity and reinsurance: Aggregate monitoring for clustered events (e.g., major meetings or sales) and stop-loss structures.
- Claims proof: Data standards for time, location, and incident evidence to keep loss adjustment fast and consistent.
- Integration: API-led embedding into sales rings, race entry systems, and owner apps for low-friction bind.
What the team is saying
Founder Neil Sands frames the shift as building products that match how horses are bought, sold, and raced-coverage that can last minutes if that's all the risk you want. Markel's Juliet Redfern points to AI bringing more transparency to valuation and protection across the bloodstock market.
Availability and expansion
The platform goes live in the UK and Ireland this autumn, with Europe, APAC, and North America targeted for 2026. iPhone users can get the app here: Download Halo for iOS.
About Halo
Halo combines predictive analytics, performance modeling, and embedded insurance to provide real-time risk insights and flexible cover for owners, trainers, and insurers. Hailey, its proprietary AI agent, supports sales recommendations, breeding choices, and race planning. Halo sits within the Fox Design venture studio. Learn more at halo.com.ai.
About Markel Insurance
Markel is a global specialty insurer within Markel Group Inc., known for specialty expertise and long-term relationships with brokers and clients. Explore Markel at markel.com.
Want your team fluent in AI underwriting?
If you're building skills around AI-driven pricing, data governance, and automation, here's a curated place to start: AI courses by job role.
Your membership also unlocks:
