Fewer players.
All with the same pitch.
Mostly involving AI.
Tricky right?
Welcome to the world of tech right now.
We’re at an interesting point in time. Six months ahead of the next insurtech upswing 🤷; every man and his dog embracing AI; and nobody managing to articulate it in a way that truly stands out.
And so ‘they all look the same’.
What’s been a racist slur for generations is now a phrase we’re hearing from clients again and again. And again.
‘We’ve found these 5 vendors – how different are they?’
‘We’ve been approached by X. How do they compare to Y?’
The good news is there’s a solution. Well, two.
For corporates:
This is where Sønr comes in. Sure we can help you scout and shortlist to get to the 5. But we can also help you assess those businesses (products, features, traction etc), tell you who they’re already working with and, often, what they think of them.
For scaleups:
There’s hope. And it’s not coming from the big brand agencies. There’s a wave (well, a pretty niche wave) of proven entrepreneurs, stepping back into startup land, helping with positioning, messaging, and, most importantly, differentiation.
Right, it’s that time. Let’s get into some insurance innovation news.
Who doesn’t love that on a Friday?
Health, wealth and female founders
This one I love.
Six years ago, Valentina Agudelo was in college in Columbia. Whilst researching for an entrepreneurship competition she identified a troubling gap in breast cancer survival rates between LatAm and the developed world. Women dying due to late detection.
And so she went on a mission to change that, shortly after setting up Salva Health.
Salva’s flagship product, Julietta, offers a portable, AI-powered breast cancer screening solution designed for underserved rural populations. So good.
Partnering with Columbian insurer Grupo Sura, Salva is conducting trials and leveraging a hardware-as-a-service model. Whilst not a substitute for mammograms it is designed to detect abnormalities and assess the likelihood of malignancy.
Better still, the company aims to expand its technology to tackle other diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.
JustInCase, founded in 2016, specialises in P2P insurance and data-driven personalised insurance products. Mostly health products (1-day injury, 1-night hospital stay) but also smartphone insurance.
And hot off the press (well, yesterday’s press) a big congrats to Samantha Ghiotti and team for Habitto’s $11.7m Series A fundraise.
Habitto, a Japanese digital bank, offers financial advice and a savings interest rate of 0.4% – higher than most traditional banks in Japan. Their target market is Japan’s younger generations.
I met Samantha earlier this year in Tokyo. A super impressive person and couldn’t be happier to see the business building.
Benefits, climate, Zurich squared
As a business owner, it’s never easy making sure your teams around the world get consistent health benefits.
The good news is Remote and Kota has partnered up to do just this. By integrating Kota’s technology, Remote aims to simplify managing health coverage across multiple countries.
Nice.
And they’re not the only employee benefits company to be getting attention this week.
Onsi has received a strategic investment from Zurich.
Onsi is a benefits platform founded in 2019. It provides hundreds of thousands of workers around the world with access to a range of benefits including on demand pay, rewards and insurance.
The collaboration will enable Zurich to introduce a ‘digital and human-first approach to employee benefits for its customers and partners’.
From Zurich to Zurich Resilience Solutions (I know, a pretty clumsy segway) which has launched Climate Spotlight – a digital tool aimed at helping businesses assess their exposure to climate change. A great idea.
The platform offers a risk dashboard and reports, all powered by proprietary climate data. It’s designed to support climate resilience and reporting goals. Nice work Zurich.
Embedded: funding, partnerships and handbags
Alright, I’m going to try and keep this one short.
It’s a busy ol’ run up into Christmas and I seem to have A LOT of (too many 🤷) meetings today.
One I’m sure you’ve seen by now bolttech securing a $50m venture debt facility from HSBC. Plus HSBC will serve as the sole lender in this multi-year agreement, supporting bolttech’s operations across 14 countries with banking and financial services.
Just love what these guys are doing, and the positive impact they and their journey have on the wider insurtech community.
On the partnership side, LendingTree and Coverdash have come together to offer embedded coverage to SMBs.
This collaboration expands LendingTree’s financial product suite, providing coverage options including general liability, workers’ compensation, and cyber insurance.
In the US, Cover Genius has got together with Entrupy to offer insurance for high-end items authenticated by AI, such as luxury handbags and sneakers.
This product protection covers repairs or replacements for damages like broken zippers or seam separations during the warranty period. Initially available for handbags in the US, the coverage will expand to other products and markets soon.
And on the new product front, Embri – which already has an offering for luxury watches and high-value jewellery, has announced embedded bike and high-end tech insurance. Nice.
Home and Away
A couple of unconnected announcements to share this week.
UK’s commercial broker Konsileo has secured an £8m Series A+.
The money – a mixture of debt and equity, will be used to grow the team and further build out the tech. It will also look to enhance its placement, data capture and eTrade platforms.
And finally, Queensland based Staunch Technology – a software platform that helps predict injuries has picked up a DXC Technology Invitational award in Oz this week. Good work Jenny and crew.
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Done. Done. Done.
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