Bishop Street launches Jade and OnHook

2026-08-20

Market specialization rarely arrives quietly; Bishop Street Underwriters is making sure of that with the launch of two tightly focused startup programs on its platform. Jade Underwriters, led by Sophie DeCouto, enters as an E&S property operation targeting complex and nonstandard risks often pushed out of admitted markets, while OnHook Underwriters, headed by Alex Stanco, goes after tow truck operators with a dedicated commercial auto and liability offering.

This twin move signals a clear bet that narrow underwriting expertise will outperform broad, generalized capacity in program business, especially in stressed property and auto segments. Jade is positioned to work within surplus lines channels where rate adequacy, manuscripted wordings and granular risk selection drive margin, giving Bishop Street a way to write higher volatility property accounts through a controlled program structure. OnHook, by contrast, concentrates on a single operational niche, aiming to price frequency-heavy towing exposures with underwriting models and loss-control protocols tuned specifically to that class rather than to generic transportation books.

What looks like simple product expansion is, in practice, a distribution and data play for Bishop Street. By anchoring Jade and OnHook on one platform, the firm can leverage shared analytics, reinsurance relationships and program administration disciplines while still giving each unit its own appetite and branding. In a program market where capacity providers are increasingly selective, Bishop Street is effectively arguing that tightly run, founder-led startups with clear sector focus deserve a larger slice of delegated authority.

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