Vane

About Vane

Vane provides specialty agricultural insurance solutions designed to offer revenue and balance sheet protection for agribusinesses against weather-related losses. The company was founded in 2020 by Don Preusser, an insurance professional with over 40 years of experience in the agricultural insurance, reinsurance, and legal sectors. Preusser, former President of John Deere Insurance Company, identified a significant gap in the market where agribusinesses that supply products and services to farmers were exposed to weather-related revenue losses without the protection afforded to farmers by the federal crop insurance program.

Vane operates as a privately held, venture-backed company, having raised $1M in a seed round in June 2023. The firm's business model is centered on providing indemnity insurance coverage, which is distinct from parametric or index-based policies. This approach allows Vane to offer 'Basis Risk' insurance policies tailored to shield specific field locations from multiple weather-related perils, providing more comprehensive and specific coverage than policies that cover a generalized area for limited risks. The company utilizes a modern, cloud-deployed SaaS platform to manage its services. This platform features a React-based frontend for a streamlined client onboarding process, real-time data analysis, and a robust backend for processing large datasets and calculating premiums dynamically based on inputs like crop type, location, and historical data.

Vane's product portfolio is customized for a wide range of clients within the agricultural value chain. These clients include seed and nutrient providers, custom farming operations, equipment dealers, ground and aerial applicators, cooperatives, agricultural retailers, processors, and agricultural financing and lending institutions. For these clients, Vane offers products such as Custom Farming Revenue Insurance, Prevent Plant, Replant Guarantees, and Equipment Rental and Lease Revenue insurance. For example, a custom harvesting company can insure its contracted acres at a certain rate per acre, and if a drought causes a loss of contracted acres, Vane provides a revenue reimbursement payment, minus a deductible. Similarly, the company offers protection to agricultural lenders by insuring against the risk of a client being unable to meet financial contracts due to weather events.