Insurance firm surges into market

It's not a deluge, yet, but another insurance company in the region has launched a flood insurance program.

In March, Tampa-based HCI Group, after two-and-a-half years of planning, began to sell flood insurance through a subsidiary named TypTap. With an ambitious goal to write at least 5,000 flood policies this year, HCI invested more than $25 million in launching TypTap.

Lakewood Ranch-based Centauri Insurance has now joined HCI in the private flood insurance market, offering another alternative to the National Flood Insurance Program. Founded in 2011 by former Universal North America insurance executives Ricardo Espino and Lora Rees, Centauri had $118.3 million in revenues last year, up 58.8% from 2014. The company has grown from three employees to 25, and earlier this year it announced plans to build a new $8 million headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, a three-story, 30,000-square-foot complex.