Guidewire, the US maker of core software for property and casualty insurers, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire hyperexponential, a London startup that builds AI software for underwriting and pricing commercial insurance. Guidewire announced the deal on October 27, 2026, at its Connections conference in Las Vegas.
Guidewire will pay a base price of $1.7 billion in cash, subject to adjustments, according to the press release it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Up to $400 million more is payable if hyperexponential, known as hx, hits specified recurring revenue targets, which TechCrunch said would put the total value at about $2 billion. Guidewire's investor presentation said the $1.7 billion includes a retention pool for employees.
The companies expect the deal to close in Guidewire's second fiscal quarter of 2027, which ends on January 31, 2027. Amrit Santhirasenan, hx's chief executive and co-founder, and his team will join Guidewire.
What hyperexponential built
Hyperexponential sells software that insurers use to decide which risks to take on and what to charge for them. Guidewire describes it as an agentic platform for commercial P&C underwriting, covering the steps from sorting incoming submissions and assessing risk to pricing, rating and steering a whole portfolio. Its earlier flagship product, hx Renew, was pitched as a pricing decision intelligence platform that lets insurers' actuaries build rating models and bring in large and alternative datasets.
According to Guidewire, insurers, reinsurers and managing general agents have used hx to make underwriting decisions on more than $75 billion in annual commercial premium. Named customers include Aviva, Allianz, Sompo, Beazley, Markel, HDI, Cincinnati Financial, Convex and Bowhead. TechCrunch reported that the company says its software is used by nearly 600 insurers in 40 countries.
Guidewire's investor presentation put hx's team at about 300 people. The startup was already part of Guidewire's PartnerConnect technology alliance programme before the deal.
“Insurance is a distinctly complex industry, where the quality of risk decisions has an immense impact on business outcomes.”
Why Guidewire is buying
Guidewire sells policy, billing and claims systems to insurers, and the deal pushes it further into the underwriting decision itself. The company frames the purchase as a bet on what it calls agentic underwriting, in which AI agents work alongside underwriters and actuaries to assess and price risk.
"Insurance is a distinctly complex industry, where the quality of risk decisions has an immense impact on business outcomes," Guidewire chief executive Mike Rosenbaum said in the release. Santhirasenan said the combination would help insurers respond to submissions faster, improve loss ratios and allocate capital more effectively.
Guidewire told investors the acquisition should add more than 650 basis points to its expected ARR growth for fiscal 2027 and help speed up organic growth after that, while staying in line with its long-term margin targets. It did not disclose hx's revenue.
How the deal is paid for
Guidewire plans to fund the purchase with a new $1 billion term loan and cash it already holds. Bank of America and Citibank have provided a binding commitment for the loan, and the deal does not depend on financing, according to the investor presentation.
The company said the deal does not change its guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 and that it will update its outlook on its earnings call in December 2026.
Centerview Partners acted as Guidewire's financial adviser and Latham & Watkins as its legal counsel. J.P. Morgan advised hyperexponential, with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (UK) as its lawyers.
The founders and the funding
Hyperexponential was founded in 2017, TechCrunch reported. Santhirasenan co-founded the company and runs it as chief executive.
The startup raised nearly $90 million in total, according to PitchBook figures cited by TechCrunch. Its largest round was a $73 million Series B in January 2024 led by Battery Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz joining as a new investor and Highland Europe, a Series A investor since 2021, adding to its stake. At the time, hx said it planned to double its team to more than 200 people within a year.
TechCrunch described the sale as a significant return for the company's backers. A price of $1.7 billion is roughly 19 times the capital hx raised.
