The Metabiota Story
How we transitioned from government services provider to software company
It was December, 2014 and the Ebola outbreak in Africa was waking the world up to the risk of a major epidemic as the first few cases trickled into the United States.
Metabiota had been on the ground in Africa since 2009 conducting critical research into the link between animal and human health, and had witnessed first hand the horrors of Ebola and the lethality of its spread.
As the world desperately tried to contain the disease to a handful of African countries, organizations on the ground scrambled to coordinate an effective response and prevent a full scale panic.
2014: Ebola is Real
Early in the Ebola crisis, impacted countries refused to even acknowledge the outbreak existed and one of the first actions taken was to erect signs on buildings stating “Ebola is Real” as a countermeasure to the rampant misinformation.
At the same time, articles appeared in newspapers blaming foreign relief workers for the deadly disease followed by various conspiracy stories involving spy agencies and military groups. The fear and distrust was palpable.
Following the Ebola outbreak, the U.S. government was determined to play a larger role in addressing epidemic risk on a global basis. Not only did natural disease spread represent a significant national security risk, but man-made diseases and bio warfare also represented a growing threat.
Soon the government approved ambitious infectious disease related programs and organizations like Metabiota with years of experience in epidemic preparedness were highly sought after for a seat at the table. Many formal RFPs began to make their way out of various DC agencies to the private sector.
Metabiota, under resourced and under staffed in the beltway game of influencing, shaping and winning large government contracts raised capital to ramp its capabilities in this area.
It hired a top notch staff in DC and embarked on a large scale business development effort covering the major agencies with programs suited to Metabiota’s scientific expertise and business interests.
However, within a year, almost as quickly as Ebola emerged, the epidemic died down in Africa and the first few cases to hit the U.S. were contained.
Individuals in the U.S. went back to their normal lives and government funding got pared back or cut altogether. It turned out many federal agencies had a very short memory when it came to the potential danger posed by an epidemic.
2016: New Opportunities
In early to mid-2016, Metabiota decided that it could no longer rely on government programs alone for its business and began to set its sights on building a sustainable commercial business to complement its work in the government sector.
Coincidentally, Munich Re had just completed its work with the World Bank to set up the first of its kind Pandemic Epidemic Financing (PEF) facility designed to disburse aid to poor countries when an epidemic hits. It is an insurance-based solution.
Munich Re reached out to Metabiota as one of the leading experts in the field of epidemic risk management to team with the company on a PEF-like insurance offering for individual businesses and organizations.
Both companies recognized disease spread was on the rise with population growth, urbanization, climate change and microbial resistance, and the world would face significant consequences unless improved mechanisms were put in place to fight disease, and help institutions bounce back when catastrophe hits.
Metabiota assembled a comprehensive disease database from the last 50 years for Munich Re’s actuaries to properly assess the frequency and severity of epidemic events worldwide and put probabilistic estimates together for an insurance solution.
Metabiota also developed a set of disease models to help Munich Re and other insurers understand the spark and spread risk of a modern day outbreak. This is truly unique IP which not only requires a comprehensive understanding of disease science but also the thousands of variables that can contribute to its spread, from a country’s ability to respond to an outbreak, to the transportation network that can accelerate transmission.
Finally, both organizations collaborated on an insurance trigger design that encompassed traditional disease severity measures like cases and deaths but also novel signals like consumer sentiment (i.e. fear) which could be equally damaging to businesses and economies worldwide.
Adding Marsh as the broker rounded out the “3M” partnership (Metabiota, Munich Re and Marsh) adding a strong go-to-market partner. The insurance solution, branded PathogenRX, was the first of its kind epidemic insurance offering to help protect businesses and institutions against the financial impact of an epidemic.
Now: Growth Ahead
The insurance solution has been in the market for less than 12 months and is gaining traction in key verticals and geographies where epidemic risk is most acute. Metabiota is strengthening its offering and customer outreach efforts as well as expanding into new disease areas.
While the government programs in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis in 2014 didn’t create the business opportunity Metabiota hoped for then, it spurred other government initiatives and the creation of a new insurance business now.
We are still in the early days of building a large business, but this is something the world absolutely needs and it’s our mission to help make the world more resilient to epidemics by bringing novel, innovative solutions to market that leverage technology, data and our scientific expertise to analyze and manage disease risk.
Bill Rossi is currently CEO of Metabiota and a start-up advisor and former executive at Cisco, Google and Enphase Energy.
