Tap into it

The Florida flood insurance market, valued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency at just less than $1 billion, is by far the largest of any state nationwide.

Tampa-based insurance firm HCI Group wants a piece of that market — even though the risk and potentially large payouts make it notoriously tough to make money in flood insurance.

HCI Chairman and CEO Paresh Patel is undaunted: In March, after two-and-a-half years of planning and development, HCI officially launched TypTap, an online residential flood insurance platform. The publicly-traded company's investment in the flood insurance unit, including the technology, is more than $25 million.