ZestyAI, the Risk Decision Platform serving the insurance sector, has signed MAP Underwriting (Managing Agency Partners), a managing agency at Lloyd’s of London, as its first customer in the London market.
MAP has chosen Z-FIRE, the wildfire risk model developed by ZestyAI, to improve the way exposure to California wildfires is assessed and controlled across its property (re)insurance book. The agreement represents ZestyAI’s first move beyond its home market and reflects mounting international unease among insurers over wildfire losses.
MAP, which runs Syndicate 2791 at Lloyd’s, has a strong reputation for disciplined, technically driven underwriting. Exposure analysis sits at the heart of its strategy, with the firm forming its own perspective on risk by drawing together the most relevant data sources while keeping its portfolio deliberately balanced.
Conditions that generate wildfire losses in California can vary sharply over short distances and evolve more quickly than broad-scale models are able to track. This puts significant weight on the resolution and quality of underlying data, and conventional models frequently blur these local distinctions, creating uncertainty in how exposure is separated and priced.
Z-FIRE tackles this challenge by offering a sharper picture of wildfire risk, forecasting which properties are most likely to burn and which are most likely to come through unscathed. Drawing on computer vision and machine learning, and trained on the industry’s largest wildfire loss dataset, the model analyses how factors such as defensible space, vegetation density, construction materials and terrain combine at the individual property level to shape losses. Embedded within MAP’s underwriting framework, the technology allows the team to differentiate wildfire risk across California with greater precision and sustain a consistent, data-led view of its portfolio.
ZestyAI is trusted by Property & Casualty carriers, reinsurers, brokers and regulators throughout the US. Its platform brings together property-level data, predictive AI models and agentic AI automation to change how insurers view, price and manage risk, delivering precision across underwriting, rating, reinsurance and regulatory workflows.
MAP deputy active underwriter Nick Williams said, “At MAP, we build our own view of risk and rely on high-quality data that strengthens that perspective. Z-FIRE enhances MAP’s view of California wildfire risk with a higher-resolution view that integrates cleanly into our framework and supports more confident decisions across our portfolio.”
ZestyAI founder and CEO Attila Toth said, “The London market is paying closer attention to wildfire than ever before, and the bar for hazard intelligence underneath that work has risen with it. MAP is one of the most respected property (re)insurance teams at Lloyd’s, and partnering with them on California wildfire is a meaningful first step in bringing Z-FIRE to the broader London Market. This partnership highlights the growing international demand for greater risk intelligence solutions and marks an exciting new chapter for ZestyAI.”
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