We are building technology that will change a 200-year structure of actuarial science.
The goal that Kim Hyung-keun, CEO of RNA Analytics, set at the time of founding was "industrial structure change." After joining an insurance company in 1989, he handled actuarial work that calculates and evaluates premiums, claim payouts, reserves, and more through statistics. He was interested in improving work efficiency and even built a new valuation system, but the company clung to its existing work regime. Judging that he could not draw the future he wanted at the company led him to start a business.
After resigning, I joined global consulting firms such as Milliman and Watson Wyatt. As a consultant, I learned the work and anchored the actuarial consulting business in Korea. But even the world-class actuarial consulting firms were insensitive to the "IT-ization of the knowledge industry." At the time, Korea's professional knowledge industries such as actuarial consulting were at a low level, but IT was advanced. I thought that if I combined it well with my experience, I could become an emerging powerhouse, so I founded RNA Analytics in 2009.
RNA Analytics provides integrated solutions for insurers and financial groups. The core product is R3S. It calculates insurers' future cash flows and manages work standards and procedures. It processes large-scale data. Based on this, it supports compliance with international accounting and regulatory standards. By applying the latest technologies such as cloud environments and artificial intelligence (AI), it provides systems tailored to actual work practices in each country.
RNA Analytics' main sources of revenue are sales and maintenance of the R3S actuarial solution and consulting such as system implementation. Revenue, which was 17.5 billion won in 2022, rose to 22.5 billion won last year. Maintenance revenue, which converts one year after new R3S solution sales, is rising by more than 20%.
RNA Analytics reached a turning point by acquiring the software "AFM," which multinational technology corporations IBM owned. AFM is an actuarial and risk modeling software in which the United Kingdom's largest actuarial consulting firm, Watson Wyatt, invested more than 30 billion won. To achieve the "change in industrial structure" that CEO Kim aimed for, a high-performance solution was needed. Just then, upon hearing that IBM was looking to sell the solution, the company jumped into the acquisition race.
There were many difficulties. The qualification requirements for the acquisition demanded a global brand and technological prowess, and a large U.K. consulting firm was already pushing to acquire it. Even if we met the qualifications, the acquisition price reached 12 billion won. It felt like a barrier that made financing impossible. We had nothing but technology.
Kim worked the ground himself. He visited IBM headquarters in New York to express interest in the acquisition. To meet the acquisition qualifications, he collaborated with a business partner to establish a joint venture and signed a contract. But the private equity fund that had promised the acquisition payment failed to secure funds, and the payment deadline was extended twice. In the end, after extending the final deadline, Kim visited dozens of financial institutions.
Two days before the payment deadline, we dramatically completed the acquisition in 2017 through a certain private equity fund. Over the next three years, we repaid all the investment money and secured a foundation for sole management.
RNA reorganized it into R3S and developed it into a differentiated solution that performs enterprise-wide settlement of account and risk management systems for financial companies. On top of that, it is also developing the recent Conversational AI "Thalexa™."
It is specialized for areas that demand high accuracy, such as actuarial work and risk management, and it also reduces hallucinations. The company aimed for an official launch in the first quarter of next year, but it said demo requests are coming in from domestic and overseas insurers.
We count as key clients not only large domestic insurers but also large global insurers and financial institutions headquartered in various countries, including the United States, Europe, and Japan. We are discussing cooperation plans for "Thalexa" with MetLife and the Society of Actuaries in the United States. With innovative technology and products, we will drive a transition in the actuarial industry, which has a 200-year history.