Guidewire has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire hyperexponential (hx) for a base purchase price of $1.7bn in cash, subject to adjustments. The deal also includes up to an additional $400m in contingent consideration, based on the achievement of specified recurring revenue targets.
London-based hx provides an agentic platform for AI-native underwriting and pricing across commercial property and casualty (P&C) insurance.
According to Guidewire, the acquisition of hx, an existing Guidewire PartnerConnect Technology Alliance Partner, will strengthen its leadership in P&C technology and position the company to define agentic underwriting: a new approach in which AI agents work alongside underwriters and actuaries to assess risk, price it, and make decisions, from the most complex specialty risks to high-volume commercial business.
“Insurers will be able to respond to more submissions, faster, with pricing and risk decisions that consistently reflect their best underwriting judgment. This will enable insurers to write more profitable business, grow into new lines with confidence, and free underwriting teams to focus on the risks where their expertise matters most,” Guidewire said.
Guidewire will fund the transaction with $1bn in new term loan financing and existing cash on hand, having secured a binding debt commitment for the loan from Bank of America and Citibank. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of its fiscal 2027.
Mike Rosenbaum, chief executive officer of Guidewire, welcomed the hx team to the company.
“We’re delighted to welcome Amrit Santhirasenan and the team at hyperexponential to Guidewire. There isn’t another company in the world whose passion for insurance, technical ambition, and vision for the potential of AI in insurance align so closely with our own,” said Rosenbaum. “Insurance is a distinctly complex industry, where the quality of risk decisions has an immense impact on business outcomes. Guidewire and hyperexponential are uniquely positioned to deliver industry-specific AI solutions that will transform commercial underwriting. Together we will bring greater and more scalable intelligence to the insurance decisions that will help underwrite the risks of tomorrow.”
Amrit Santhirasenan, chief executive officer and co-founder of hyperexponential, said underwriting judgment was the highest-leverage work insurers do.
“We founded hyperexponential on the conviction that underwriting judgment is the highest-leverage work insurers do. Guidewire is the most trusted name in P&C insurance technology, with deep expertise in managing and safeguarding the policy and risk information insurers rely on throughout the insurance lifecycle,” said Santhirasenan. “Together, we’ll bring insight from submission to bind and from the individual risk to the entire portfolio. With hx and Guidewire, insurers will be able to respond to submissions faster and, more importantly, improve loss ratios and allocate capital more effectively.”
