Mission CEO Jim Dwane has hailed the company’s “pretty extraordinary growth” in its less than five years of operation and expressed his optimism for the future as it looks to grow its 30-plus programs portfolio in a market with “so much opportunity”
Oct 21, 2025 - Mission was unveiled in May 2021 under the leadership of former ESIS president Keith Higdon.
The Altamont Capital Partners-backed company, which since May 2024 has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Accelerant Holdings, had a change of leadership in late October 2023, at which point Dwane succeeded Higdon as CEO.
Talking to Program Manager, Dwane provided insight into how the company, which is entirely focused on supporting de novo MGUs, has grown since its formation.
“Last year, which would have put us at about three and a half years, we surpassed $500 million dollars in gross written premium. I think that’s pretty extraordinary growth in this space.”
That growth is on course to continue this year. As per figures from Accelerant’s S-1 registration statement, filed shortly before the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in July, Mission recorded $623 million of GPW in the 12 trailing months to March 31, 2025, with that volume generated from 31 MGUs.
And in Accelerant’s Q2 2025 earnings announcement, the company reported that the 31 MGUs booked $373.5 million of written premium in the first half of this year.
“This year, we’ll flirt with, but maybe not get all the way, to 60% year over year growth. So we see a lot of opportunity out there.”
ADDING FIVE OR SIX MGUs EACH YEAR
Dwane said Mission looks to add five or six MGUs to its platform each year. On top of the 31 it had as of June 30, 2025, Mission has since announced the launch of ShelterWind, a wind and hail deductible buyback program, and also Hill Country Underwriters, an MGU focused on casualty coverage for artisan trade contractors in Texas.
And in September, Mission unveiled Laplace Alternative Risk Transfer Solutions, which is led by Richard Zhang and offers a $10 million complex risk insurance program.
In what is an increasingly competitive MGU incubation market, Dwane acknowledged it may be tough to maintain the significant growth levels Mission has achieved so far.
But, he added that “if (we) keep bringing on quality teams, and (we) keep building quality MGUs, then the growth will be what it's going to be”.
In the near term, Dwane said Mission has "a good pipeline of prospective new MGUs".
"We feel fortunate from a timing perspective. We feel like we've kind of captured lightening in a bottle," he said.
And he said Mission having strong relationships with carriers, including with capacity providers other than Accelerant, has supported its growth.
"MGAs and MGUs rise and fall on the strength of their relationships with, and the results they deliver, to their capacity providers," said Dwane.
"That's sacrosanct. Because if you don't have that, you don't have a business."
INVESTMENT HOUSE MODEL
Dwane gave his pitch for why interested entrepreneurial underwriters should turn to his platform rather than others.
"We're a program administrator that builds first class MGUs right from scratch, de novo,” he stated.
“What’s more important though, and I think where we're able to appeal to those folks that are looking to start their own MGUs, is the operating model we use, and we use what I call an investment house model.
“That's just a snazzy way of saying, we go out and we find these awesome people, and we bring them in, and we give them three things.”
Those three things are capital to support the MGU’s creation and give the underwriter or team a minority ownership stake in the startup.
Mission will also provide what Dwane described as “strategic advisory”, which is targeted at those individuals who have not run MGAs or MGUs before, and need support with managing their P&L, capital and hiring.
“We help them think about that, and we help them think strategically about their business, almost like a quasi-virtual board of directors, if you will,” said Dwane.
The third is the infrastructure to get the MGU up and running.
“We want them to have underwriting and distribution. We’re going to give them everything else,” said Dwane.
That includes operational and administrative support such as finance, HR, licensing and compliance. It also includes technology, which Dwane said is core to Mission’s offering.
“Technology is really at the center of our current and our future value proposition in terms of how we're going to run the organization and how we're going to appeal to these folks that we're looking to bring in,” he said.
By providing these functions, Dwane said the teams it brings in “can just focus on underwriting profitable business and building out their business”.
WHAT MISSION LOOKS FOR
When it comes to the type of MGUs that Mission is looking to onboard, Dwane said ideally, any new operation would be able to write $5 million to $10 million in its first year, before scaling up to $25 million to $30 million after five years.
“But we've got some that didn't grow that fast, but have been fabulously successful and profitable, and we've got some that are over $100 million in less than five years. There’s wild variability,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of folks coming at us ... and we've got a kind of a rigorous process of selection that's the true filter that we use,” Dwane added.
“Technically, we've launched 27 (MGUs), we have 25 (and) we've probably looked at hundreds that we've said no to,” he added.
When it comes to the makeup of Mission’s portfolio, Dwane described it as “extraordinarily diverse”, with the platform hosting MGUs operating in segments such as construction property, pollution, repair shops, yachts, light aircraft and inland marine.
Having that range of MGUs on its book means the company is not overly impacted by market conditions in one particular segment.
“Unlike 25 years ago, where the market tended to move all in one big monolithic cycle, now it's all little mini cycles,” noted Dwane.
“Property will get soft and casualty will go up. Workers’ comp will go up and GL will go down. By having diversification provides a level of protection for us.”
