Something new in AI and partnership goodness

The world is a happy place. It’s Friday, the sun’s out, my kids are back at school and we’re staring down the barrel of a Bank Holiday weekend.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better… SøNws, this week piloted by me, Matt F.

I’ve had a brilliant week so let’s share some of the joy/love/interesting stuff we’ve seen, heard and been a part of with you all.

Where to start?

Coming from America

As Matt C alluded to, it’s a right old travel-fest for the Sønr team at the moment and Matt’s spent the week in sunny Hartford.

Congrats to Stacey Brown and crew for putting on another stellar event as part of the growing series. The usual lively mix of familiar faces, making new friends and tapping into perspectives on the market and how it’s evolving.

Not only that, but also time to catch up with the Travelers team on home turf, which is always a pleasure (obvs) ♥️

From Amsterdam with love

From one side of the pond to the other comes a double-scoop of event fun.

Matt C’s packing his toothbrush (again) for Future of Insurance Europe in Amsterdam – another in the Reuters calendar. If you’re there, too please feel free to drop him a line.

As an added bonus the team have kindly shared a copy of their latest industry benchmarking report. There’s a tonne of good commentary on various topics, but we regularly get asked ‘what are you seeing’ so it’s an interesting resource to take a leaf through – not least as it’s now in its 3rd year. Enjoy.

Then it’s back to the ‘Dam again for ITC Europe, which sounds like it’s shaping up nicely as per usual. Em, Matt and myself will all be in attendance so if you’re around then we’d love to catch up.

AI cover, but not as we know it

We all know the penchant for partnership that we’ve seen in the market of late (the last 2 years…) And this week was no exception.

First up is Wednesday evening, which saw me choose an air-conditioned office at Chaucer over sitting in the sun. It was worth it.

It was for the official launch of long-standing Chaucer partner, Armilla’s new AI Liability product. If you don’t know them, Armilla specialise in insurance and risk management solutions which are designed for AI.

Well, fast forward a couple of years and AI is increasingly prevalent in our lives. And as the rate, pace and scale of impact accelerates, so do the range of risks that businesses are (often unknowingly) exposed to, whether that be from model drift, bias or otherwise.

Think it doesn’t matter because you’re covered (by your cyber policy)? Well, if your answer is anything less than ‘yeah, 110%’ this is where Armilla’s new AI liability cover comes in. And even if your answer is ‘yeah, 110%’ it might be worth checking this out 😉

I now run the risk of completely de-railing SøNws trying to share a summary of a great keynote from Matthew Blakemore, the brilliantly fun panel (and audience) discussion I got to moderate with Karthik, Ben, Tom and Matthew and the ensuing product presentation.

But it’s genuinely innovative stuff, tackling a growing systemic issue for the industry. What’s not to like (love)?

Check out the press release for more details, or if you want to hear it from the horse’s mouth I’m sure Karthik and the team will be happy to help. Either way, hats off to both teams to get this to the start line and Nasra, Iryna and the Chaucer crew for putting on such a good show. For all the hard work, the journey starts in earnest…

Soooo, what next?

A, A, A exciting partnership…

As the market continues to evolve and mature we’ve seen increasing interest in how insurers can leverage ecosystems, the quality of their digital experiences, customer engagement and, er, scale.

As a result, we’ve been keen to keep an eye on SE Asia’s superapps. In step AXA HK & Macau and a new embedded play in partnership with Ant Bank and Alipay.

The deal will see AXA launch their most popular life, but also savings products on Ant Bank’s mini app and AlipayHK, and ‘gradually integrate further insurance product categories later in the year’.

So, that’s partnerships wrapped. How about some other new product goodness?

Cyber for the masses

From the last SøNws we saw some of the more recognisable names in the form of Lockton x Axio, as well as Coalition launching new offerings.

Not to be left out, Cowbell has launched Prime One Tech in the UK. With the UK being a leading European tech market, their focus is UK tech SME’s who are turning over less than £1bn for which they’ll offer up to £5m in cover.

“What about funding news, Matt?” I hear you ask. Possibly.

Well, let’s see.

Lloyd’s backing

Hot on the heels of Mitigrate’s investment from Lloyd’s a couple of weeks back, comes more good news for Lloyd’s Lab alumni.

This time it’s for Sotera, who are helping insurers to make more informed decisions on Fine Art & Specie and High Net Worth Home Contents. It’s the first time this has been done with their system using AI to provide detailed risk analysis and price-checking for complex policies based on analysing each object in a policy or book of policies. Backers include Lloyd’s but also Tokio Marine Future Fund, Ninety, StoryHouse Ventures and a number of angels. Congrats to all!

Big, bigger, biggest

3 stories rounding out our funding news come from the world of marine, landlord and SME cover respectively.

The world of complex supply chains and associated transportation is an area ripe for innovation. Ceto collects and processes high-frequency data from commercial vessels to help customers assess risk, minimise machinery breakdowns, and improve vessel fuel efficiency. Their connected insurance product has landed a $4.8m round.

Steadily are up next with their US-focussed product for landlords. If you haven’t heard of them, founded in 2020 they’re Texas-based but operate in 50 states, and serve 18m individual rental property owners. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’ve raised a further $30m in Series C funding, which will fuel their obvious growth and traction. They’re now citing a valuation of $355m – nice.

Finally we’re heading back to blighty with more SME-focussed news from our friends at Superscript. They’ve announced an impressive $54m Series B funding round which will help fuel their growth (obvs) as they eye up international growth and ‘develop more AI-driven insurance products’. Grow, and make more cool stuff. I’m sure their investor deck was a bit more sophisticated than that, but it’s more great news for home-grown talent.

Oh, hang on – I knew there was something else relevant to this.

Making A to B easier

Given the economic climate, we’ve all seen/heard (and experienced?) the challenging investment environment. Arguably this spans both early as well as growth-stage investment, but the latter is definitely a challenge at a critical, and hopefully inflection point, for businesses looking to make the leap from Series A to B.

So there’s good news in the form of Volution – a leading UK-based venture firm – who has teamed up with Japan’s SBI Investment Co. to launch a $100m fund aimed at tackling one of the UK tech sector’s most persistent challenges… the shortfall of funding between Series A and Series B stages.

I’m sure the phones are already ringing off the hook but it can only be a very good thing and likely hotly contested. Definitely one to track and see who garners the fund’s pennies. You can use Sønr to help with this… just sayin’.

It’s the final countdown

Right, the sun’s shining and you’re probably ready to show a Bank Holiday who’s boss.

So, rounding out this edition is a selection of M&A news. It felt like a lot of last year’s narrative around the evolving insurtech market included the word ‘consolidation’. Well, that certainly seems to have been coming to pass and there are not one, not two, not three, but FOUR whole announcements from around the world, which are validating the commentators’ predictions. Phew.

I definitely don’t have enough fingers/toes to count the number of times I’ve heard the dream of technology helping insurers to be there with the ‘right offer at the right time’. But that’s exactly what this next story is about. This week saw the announcement of Earnix’s acquisition of Zelros for an undisclosed amount. The deal will see the integration of Earnix’s predictive AI platform with Zelros’s genAI recommendations engine.

Paris-based Tinubu has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire no-code specialist Innoveo who focus on the specialty market. If you’ve taken a look at any of the market predictions around this self-serve approach to product construction it seems like a super sensible arrangement.

Last, but by no means least is European B2B payment solution provider Pliant. They’ve acquired Austria’s hi.health, which will see them hit fast forward on their insurance-specific expertise and enable them to apply their own payment expertise to a new sector.

Hooray.

OK, that’s it.

Have a great long weekend everyone, and look forward to catching up soon.

Matt (F)

Make smarter decisions with AI-driven market intelligence.

Sønr helps (re)insurers around the world explore market trends, track competitor activity, and scout and assess best-in-class tech companies.

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