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At-Bay vs Cytora — Underwriting workstation for US insurance, 2026.

At-Bay (3 named carriers) and Cytora (8 named carriers) both sit at the underwriting workstation layer. Zero customer overlap in the public roster — they are addressing different segments of the same stack layer.

Last verified 2026-04-22 · methodology

TL;DR

  • At-Bay has 3 publicly-named carrier deployments; Cytora has 8. Both at the underwriting workstation layer.
  • Zero customer overlap in the public roster. At-Bay and Cytora are addressing different carriers within the same stack layer.
  • Both classified ai-native on Phidea's generation axis.
  • Ownership contrast: At-Bay is independently held; Cytora is a subsidiary of Applied Systems.
  • Analyst coverage: 0 firms cover both, 3 only At-Bay, 2 only Cytora.

Customer overlap

BucketCount
Named on At-Bay only3
Named on Cytora only8
Named on both0
of which US-named on at least one side0

Only on At-Bay

  • At-Bay Specialty Insurance Company (US)
  • Markel Corporation (subsidiary) (US)
  • HSB Specialty Insurance Company (Munich Re) (US)

Only on Cytora

  • QBE (AU)
  • AXA XL (UK)
  • MS Amlin (UK)
  • Starr (US)
  • Arch Insurance (BM)
  • Markel (US)
  • Chubb (claims intake) (US)
  • Beazley (US)

Counts derived from 11sourced carrier-deployment entries across both vendor cards. Aggregate-only statements (e.g. “16 of the top 20”) excluded.

Stack position

At-Bay
Generation
ai-native
Stack layer
Underwriting workstation
Founded
2016
Lines
commercial, specialty
Replaces
manual cyber underwriting, traditional mga submission review
Cytora
Generation
ai-native
Stack layer
Underwriting workstation
Founded
2014
Lines
commercial, specialty

Ownership and corporate context

At-Bay
Type
independent

Source: At-Bay

Cytora
Type
subsidiary
Parent
Applied Systems
Acquired
2025

Source: Applied Systems

Carrier-segment specialization

At-Bay — geographic split

  • US
    3

Cytora — geographic split

  • US
    4
  • UK
    2
  • AU
    1
  • BM
    1

Analyst coverage differential

Only At-Bay cited by
  • TechCrunch (2020: Cyber insurance startup At-Bay raises $34M Series C, adds M12 as a new investor)
  • Insurance Insider US (2025: At-Bay to exit the admitted cyber market, sunsetting its product offering)
  • Insurance Journal (2022: Cyber MGA At-Bay Acquires Tech-Solutions Provider Relay)
Only Cytora cited by
  • Carrier Management (2019: By Taming Big Data With AI, Cytora Aims to Transform Commercial Underwriting)
  • Applied Systems (2026: Cytora launches Autopilot to deliver insurance workflows that run themselves)

Recent news (last 12 months)

No news items in the last 12 months for either tool.

Sourced limitations

At-Bay
  • At-Bay is a US-only operator. Cyber policies are placed through At-Bay Specialty Insurance Company (E&S, 44 US states) or through a Markel subsidiary (admitted, 47 states). No UK, EU, or Canadian authorised entity is published. Internationally licensed brokers cannot bind At-Bay capacity directly.
    Source: At-Bay
  • In 2024–2025 At-Bay shuttered its Relay digital placement platform (acquired August 2022), laid off approximately 10% of staff including 25 Israeli R&D roles, and announced the sunset of its admitted cyber product — retrenching to E&S cyber and InsurSec. This signals that the combined 'insurance + MDR' thesis has not yet produced a scalable dual-sided P&L.
    Source: The Insurer / Cyber Risk Insurer
  • At-Bay's claims efficacy data (ransomware frequency, MDR containment times under 15 minutes) is self-reported from its own book via the annual InsurSec Report. Independent validation from Gartner, Forrester, Celent, or Advisen is not published in 2024–2025 cyber insurance quadrants.
    Source: At-Bay
Cytora

No publicly-sourced limitations recorded on the vendor card yet.

Limitations published on Phidea are sourced to the underlying citation and reflect what is publicly named — not an exhaustive list. Consult the vendor card for the full record.

Frequently asked

Do any carriers run both At-Bay and Cytora?
Not in Phidea's public roster. Across 11 sourced carrier-deployment entries on both vendor cards, zero carriers appear on both. The two tools are addressing different carriers within the same stack layer.
Who owns At-Bay and Cytora?
At-Bay is independently held. Cytora is a subsidiary of Applied Systems.
Which has more named US carriers?
Cytora has the larger publicly-named US roster: At-Bay 3, Cytora 4. Public-roster size is a coverage signal, not a quality signal — vendors with stronger NDAs may have larger actual US footprints than the public count shows.
Where are these tools positioned in the insurance stack?
Both sit at the underwriting workstation layer. At-Bay replaces manual cyber underwriting, traditional mga submission review; Cytora operates as a standalone vendor.

Adjacent reading