Blockchain fever

First up, the eagle-eyed of you may have noticed the change in author this week. Matt is a busy man, but in his absence, I’ll be here to deliver your fortnightly dose of insightful Insurtech goodness.

Now that’s sorted – let’s get into it.

China first, India next…

Coverfox – the latest Indian price comparison service to hit the headlines

Digital insurance aggregator Coverfox announced a $22 million Series C round led by IFC, sister organisation of Transamerica and World Bank. The funding adds to a flurry of investment activity, both confirmed and rumoured (Amazon & Acko), into digital insurers and price comparison sites across India overhauling its nascent insurance market.

You may recall a previous Sø.Nws mention of our client immersion trip to India, where we witnessed digital adoption like you’ve never seen ­­and an economy where transactional data is about to move mainstream.

Watch this space.

Last week we caught up with Matt Poll CEO & Founder of UK-based smart home insurer Neos.

We’ve spoken regularly with Matt and his team over the past year and tracked their successful launch into the UK home insurance market.

Corporate blockchain fever

This week Santander announced the launch of its blockchain-enabled international payments app – which can be used to make transfers between £10 and £10,000 around the clock.

The news comes shortly after the announcement that blockchain consortium B3i, backed by a long list of global insurers, has created an independent company with the aim of commercialising a number of solutions developed since its conception.

We spotlighted B3i in last year’s Corporate Innovation report revealing the innovations and strategies driving change across the global insurance market.

You can get your copy here.

As promised, we’ve uploaded some more juicy episodes of our weekly Future Disruptors podcast for you to get your ears around.

Last week saw the release of our conversation with Farid from AssetVault, who talked us through his vision to tokenise the world’s physical and digital assets, future planning & wills, and their reasons behind the decision to use blockchain technology.

This week, our roving reporter catches up with the CEO of Niki.ai – a leading supplier of chatbot tech, with some great insights into the present and future of chatbot adoption.

So what are you waiting for? Use the links below to sign yourself up to the Future Disruptors podcast for your weekly dose of lively discussion about innovation in business.

Watch: Open Innovation Summit

Next week we’ll be attending the Open Innovation Summit in London, where the great & the good of Europe’s leaders will gather to talk best practices and applications across open innovation.

What’s more, I’ll be lining up alongside innovation leaders from AXA, Barclays & LBG in a panel to discuss cross-industry collaboration.

Hurry, there’s still tickets available here.