Hello.
Happy Friday.

A great fun couple of days at ITC London last week.

There was a lot of good. More on that here.

Something I haven’t spoken about publicly – but if you were at the Generali Challenge Lab, you’ll know what I’m talking about – was one of the pitches. Or more accurately, one of the Q&As.

The setup: five live pitches from finalists, all centred on this year’s theme – Protecting People, Empowering Planet. A hugely important topic, one close to my heart.

Better still, I was kindly invited to judge.

At one point, I asked a presenter about their sustainability credentials. The response?

“My company is as much focused on sustainability as yours!”
I mean, I wasn’t pitching. But sure.

It didn’t stop there. Things got…a little abstract.
“Colt invented the Peacemaker,” they added. “And it seems to be doing a good job of keeping the peace right now.”

Not to get too political, but maybe last week wasn’t the ideal time to be addressing a global audience about guns and peacekeeping. Especially at an event with ‘Protecting People’ in the title 🤦‍♂️

And hey, there’s probably a lesson in here for all of us.

It’s hard getting on stage.
It’s even harder during Q&A.
All credit to those that did.

But let’s also remember to pause, think, and – when in doubt – maybe talk less about guns.

The good is, there were some brilliant pitches on a very important theme. And just to be clear this is in no way on ITC or Generali – both did a standup job making this happen.

Most of all, a huge congrats to Josh from Senen, who won the day with their AI-powered claims intelligence platform. Smart chap and a company to keep an eye on.

Right, let’s get into some SøNws.

Life, Death & Policy Pivots

Big moment for Ethos which hit the Nasdaq last week, trading under the ticker LIFE with a ~$1.2B valuation.

1. Interview with Founder & CEO, Shaun Quincey
   From Shaun rowing across that Tasman to ‘Why life insurers that grew through M&A often face an “impossible” operating reality’

2. Interview with Tim von Dadelszen, Chief Product Officer
   I’ve known Tim for a few years yet had never met in person. Great to go deep into what it really takes to build and deliver core platforms. And how product teams should think about AI as the operating model starts to shift.

Two great interviews and well worth a watch.

Keeping with life, Pembridge Life launched something quietly different: a secondary market for term life.

Through webuylifepolicy.com, customers nearing lapse can now sell their policies for cash, rather than walk away empty-handed. It’s a model that’s long existed in the US albeit new to our shores.

And talking of the US, Indigo closed a $50M Series B to scale its AI-led medical malpractice (or MedMal if you’re in the know) platform.

The startup is already quoting in minutes and insuring over 1,000 doctors. If you’ve ever waited weeks for a manual quote in this space you’ll know why this one matters.

The Matt and Nigel Show

Now, do days get bigger than today?

That’s right, the time is nearly upon us.

It’s been a year or so of talking.

Finally, Nigel Walsh and I are sitting down and recording our first ever pod 🤯

Two guys, who have a lot to say, both rarely in the country at the same time. What could possibly go wrong?!

So far:

• We don’t have a name

• We’re not too sure of the content

• I’m away for next Friday’s recording (I haven’t told him that yet)

One thing that is for sure – it’s going to be beautiful.

Wish us luck.

Embedded, Bundled & Everywhere

Chase just dropped its first UK insurance product – bundling travel, phone, and roadside cover into a tidy £12.50 monthly package.

It’s app-managed, simple to activate, and delivers real value for digital-first customers.

Not earth-shattering, but a smart move from a bank leaning further into embedded protection.

Also embedded: Tokio Marine’s latest play in Southeast Asia.

For $5m they picked up a 1.65% stake in Igloo, one of the region’s most prolific embedded platforms with 600m+ policies sold.

It’s a small cheque (I mean, it’s all relative – I wouldn’t mind $5m if you were offering), but a clear sign Japan’s giants are doubling down on SEA’s e-commerce-led distribution game.

AI, But Make It Useful

Keeping on the Asian vibe, AXA Hong Kong and Macau launched Quest by AXA – an AI-powered platform designed to support their financial consultants with ‘sharper, more consistent, and data-driven advice’. Sounds eminently sensible.

Digging in further, it seems less robo-advisor, more super-assistant: macro insights, customer context, and product analytics all in one place.

Plus with – what they’re saying to be – 95% of staff already trained on AI tools, AXA is definitely in the deployment over experimental phase.

Also stepping into the AI-augmented world is Gyde, which just launched with $60m in backing from Lightspeed and others, including Crystal Venture Partners which I’m a big fan of.

The play? Acquire top-performing brokerages, layer on a proprietary OS and AI assistant (“Gia”), and double the number of clients each advisor can serve.

Less admin, more advice. And a new kind of full-stack brokerage model in the making.
Nice.

The Underwriting Arms Race

A big raise for London’s Artificial Labs which brought in a $45m Series B.

A digital underwriting platform sitting across commercial and specialty, the new funding will push them deeper into broker-carrier integrations and international expansion. A big congrats to the team and we look forward to seeing the next chapter.

Stateside, relative newbies and Signal 50 cohort, Sixfold closed a $30m Series B to ramp up its AI-powered underwriting co-pilot.

Already used by Zurich, Generali, Skyward and others, the platform is proving that speed and accuracy don’t need to be trade-offs. Underwriters get through more quotes, with less burnout.

The pitch is simple: don’t replace the humans – just give them superpowers.

A niche risk, but one that’s only growing. Smart and worth keeping an eye on.

And Oro raised $3m to launch its home wellness benefits platform – offering homeownership support through employers, with embedded insurance baked in.

Mortgage guidance, renters’ help, first-time buyer tools. All bundled into HR portals. A new route to distribution, and a nod to housing as a core financial stress point.

If AI Takes Jobs…

…shouldn’t it also pay our wages?

Last but not least, I found this an interesting read this week. Lemonade’s CEO Daniel Schreiber shared an intriguing LinkedIn post:

• +1.25m new customers since ChatGPT launched

• Fewer employees now than then

But the post wasn’t about Lemonade. It was about MOSAIC – a nonprofit think tank he founded 18 months back to explore how society can equitably benefit from AI.

The core idea? AI doesn’t just create unemployment…it creates economic surplus.

As companies automate, costs drop and margins grow. The MOSAIC Model proposes taxing some of that AI-driven gain and redistributing it as a guaranteed “AI Dividend” – even if unemployment hits 50%.

Plenty of smart questions in the comments:

• Does redistribution beat pure economic efficiency?

• What happens if the gains stay with the tech owners?

• And can you do this without killing innovation?

Interesting right? The whole lot.

Mosaic is part think tank, part blueprint. Definitely worth a read: mosaicmodel.org