UPC Insurance embraces shift to insurtech business model

St. Petersburg-based UPC Insurance (NYSE: UIHC) has long been a leading carrier of residential and commercial insurance for coastal properties that are exposed to risk from catastrophic weather events. But over the past couple of years, it has steadily invested in high-tech infrastructure that has allowed it to enter the insurtech space with a new subsidiary company called Skyway Technologies.

Chris Griffith, UPC’s chief information officer who’s pulling double-duty as president of Skyway Technologies, said the move opens up a whole new sales channel for the company. Instead of selling insurance policies through independent agents, Skyway can sell online direct to consumers.

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The Skyway Bridge tragedy: The survivor

Part V.

At 7:34 a.m. Friday, May 9, 1980, Wesley MacIntire was driving his Ford Courier pickup over the southbound span of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, headed for his job at a meat-delivery business. Just after he threw his two quarters into the tollbooth basket, he would later testify, the steady rain turned cyclonic.