CNA Insurance and Chubb have abandoned their plans to jointly develop an online marketplace targeting small businesses, Insurance Networking has learned.The project, called Forsurance, was recently abandoned after executives from Chicago-based CNA and Warren, N.J.-based Chubb declined to sign on to financing for the project that was to have been provided by GS Ventures, according to several industry experts who are familiar with the proposed venture.
Marketing executives at CNA, Chubb and Goldman Sachs confirm that Forsurance has been abandoned but they decline to say why.
"We did explore a new dot-com venture with several organizations but decided that it was not the right time," a Chubb spokesman says. "We have 50 e-business projects in the works and continue to assess new e-business opportunities.
Forsurance was designed as a Web-based MGA to support agents in small rural areas, according to analysts who were briefed on the project. Sources say Forsurance was attempting to get other carriers to join the network before the effort was abandoned.
"It was going to be a centralized platform that would enable agents in rural areas to connect electronically with large carriers," says one analyst who declined to be named. "They assembled an all-star management team from top carriers, and they had a good model."
