How to insure emerging industries: Finding the right capacity, and the right partner

Discover how Lloyd’s of London can help you insure emerging industries such as drones, cannabis, crypto and climate tech.

Emerging industries can become commercially significant long before the insurance market feels fully comfortable with them. Drones, cannabis, crypto and climate tech are all good examples: each has moved beyond theory into real operations, real investment and real liabilities. For businesses in these sectors – and for the insurers, brokers, MGAs and InsurTechs that serve them – the challenge is often not whether cover is needed, but how to secure the right capacity, wording and underwriting partner. That is where specialist market access matters. Costero Brokers creates tailored solutions for UK, US and international clients, drawing on established relationships across Lloyd’s, London company and international markets.

Emerging industries are no longer niche

An increasing variety of emerging industries and business sectors now sit in the gap between “innovative” and “mainstream” – commercially growing, but still difficult to place in standard insurance markets.

Examples include:

• Drone operators working in inspection, surveying, logistics, media, agriculture and public safety. Europe alone has more than 2 million registered drone operators. (Source: EASA)
• Cannabis businesses operating in regulated markets, especially in North America, but facing uneven legal treatment and inconsistent insurance availability.
• Crypto and digital assets businesses, from exchanges and custodians to infrastructure, payments and service providers, all carrying a mix of cyber, crime, operational and regulatory exposures.
• Climate-tech companies, including battery storage, carbon capture and other transition technologies, which are scaling quickly but bring technical, environmental and performance risk. Momentum has grown sharply in carbon capture, with over 700 projects in development across the value chain. Separately, the IEA says grid-scale batteries are projected to account for the majority of future energy storage growth worldwide. (Source: IEA)

For insurance professionals, that means the opportunity is real – but so is the complexity.

Emerging industries face new combinations of risk

What makes emerging industries difficult to insure is not just novelty. It is the way multiple exposures often sit inside a single account. Below, we explore risks across four emerging industries:

1. Drones business risks

Drone businesses can face a wide range of challenges and risks:

• Aviation liability
• Bodily injury and property damage
• Privacy and data issues
• Cyber compromise
• Product liability
• Cross-border regulatory complications

For example, a single drone incident can trigger multiple liabilities at the same time – including physical damage, operational interruption and third-party liability.

2. Cannabis business risks

Potential exposures in the regulated cannabis industry can include:

• Product liability
• Stock and property risk
• Crime and theft
• Management liability
• Regulatory and compliance issues
• Business interruption

This sector can be especially awkward because coverage availability still varies widely by jurisdiction, and much of the market sits in excess and surplus lines rather than standard admitted placements. (Source: NAIC)

3. Crypto and digital assets business risks

Typical exposures facing businesses in crypto and digital assets include:

• Cyber attacks
• Theft and fraud
• Custody failure
• Technology E&O
• Directors’ and officers’ liability
• Regulatory scrutiny
• Third-party liability linked to outages or security failures

These businesses often combine financial risk, technology risk and reputational risk in ways that standard policies do not address neatly.

4. Climate tech business risks

Climate-tech businesses may face multiple challenges:

• Construction and delay risk
• Machinery breakdown
• Technology performance risk
• Fire and explosion exposures
• Environmental liabilities
• Supply-chain disruption
• Contractual liability linked to performance guarantees

This is particularly relevant for battery storage, carbon capture and other scaling technologies where the engineering, regulation and claims environment are still evolving.

Emerging industries risks in the news

These risks are not hypothetical. Recent events show how quickly emerging-industry exposures can become severe losses or liability events.

• Drones: In January 2025, a civilian drone collided with a fire-fighting aircraft during the Los Angeles wildfires, damaging and grounding the plane. The drone operator later pleaded guilty to unsafe behaviour. This illustrates how a single drone can create aviation liability and operational disruption. (Source: US Department of Justice)
• Cannabis: In April 2025, Medical Marijuana, Inc. faced a case in the US Supreme Court for alleged mislabelling of a CBD product. The plaintiff, a truck driver, said he used a product marketed as THC-free, later tested positive for THC, and lost his job. (Source: Reuters)
• Crypto: In February 2025, around $1.5 billion in virtual assets was reportedly stolen from crypto exchange Bybit by North Korea-sponsored hackers – underlining the scale of cyber crime and custody exposures in the crypto industry. (Source: FBI)
• Climate tech / battery storage: In January 2025, a major fire at Vistra’s Moss Landing battery storage facility in California triggered local evacuation orders, highlighting the property, engineering, environmental and liability implications around large-scale energy storage. (Source: Reuters)

Why finding insurance for emerging industries is so difficult

For emerging industries, the insurance problem is rarely just price – it is also underwriter appetite. Common barriers to finding cover include:

• Limited loss history: Underwriters may not have enough credible long-term data to price confidently.
• Regulatory uncertainty: Rules can vary sharply between countries, states and territories, especially in industries such as cannabis, drones and digital assets.
• Blended exposures: These risks often cut across property, casualty, cyber, financial lines, marine, aviation or environmental covers rather than fitting one standard class.
• Aggregation concerns: Markets may worry about systemic cyber events, coordinated fraud, battery-fire patterns or regulatory shifts that affect many insureds at once.
• Wording gaps: Standard policy forms may leave uncomfortable grey areas around definitions, exclusions, triggers and territorial scope.
• Patchy capacity: Capacity may exist, but in fragments – spread across multiple underwriters, territories or product lines rather than sitting in one clean solution.

This difficulty applies not only to the business itself, but also to the insurers, brokers, MGAs and InsurTechs trying to serve that business. You may have a good client opportunity, a sound distribution plan and strong demand – but still struggle to find specialist capacity, suitable paper or underwriters with genuine appetite.

How Lloyd’s of London can help with insurance for emerging industries

This is where Lloyd’s of London can be especially valuable for emerging industries because it offers:

• Specialist underwriting expertise.
• Subscription capacity, allowing multiple carriers to share complex risks.
• Delegated authority structures, which are highly relevant for MGAs and programme business.
• Global reach, with around 80 regional insurance licences and the capability to write reinsurance business in over 200 territories.

The market is also important for MGAs because becoming a Lloyd’s coverholder enables you to enter into insurance contracts on behalf of a Lloyd’s syndicate (authorised by a Lloyd’s Managing Agent, under a binding authority). That delegated model can be a powerful route for specialist products and niche propositions.

In plain terms, Lloyd’s can help you where domestic markets are too narrow, too cautious or too rigid.

Why the right Lloyd’s-registered broker makes the difference

While Lloyd’s offers multiple benefits for insuring emerging industries, accessing it well is not a simple matter. The quality of the outcome can depend on a range of factors, such as:

• Framing the proposition attractively to underwriters.
• Explaining the exposure accurately.
• Building the submission correctly.
• Assembling capacity across Lloyd’s and other international markets.

Partnering with the right Lloyd’s-registered broker is essential. Costero Brokers is a specialist in complex and international business, with tailored solutions and strong relationships across Lloyd’s, London company and international markets. Our areas of expertise include Cyber, Media & Technology, Binders & Programs, and Insuretech & Emerging Risk, including Digital Assets. That mix is directly relevant when you are trying to place non-standard, fast-evolving risks or build specialist products for them.

Achieving insurance success for emerging industries

If you are operating in an emerging industry – or trying to insure clients in one – the key challenge is not just recognising the exposure. It is finding the right specialist capacity and the right market partner to make the risk insurable on workable terms.

This is why your Lloyd’s broker can make all the difference. With access across Lloyd’s and international markets, and a focus on bespoke specialty insurance solutions, Costero Brokers is well placed to help insurers, brokers, MGAs, InsurTechs and commercial clients navigate hard-to-place risks in emerging industries such as drones, cannabis, crypto and climate tech.

Get in touch with us at Costero Brokers to discuss your requirements and speak with our experts.