What's that about Chinese robots?

In a few weeks we’re taking out one of our clients to immerse them into the world of tech and innovation. As with all these immersions it’ll be full-on; 5 days split across Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing, meeting a mix of startups, scale-ups, corporate innovators and thought-leaders.

This time though we’ve an itinerary second to none – 20+ meetings with the most incredible new ventures; from crazy advanced AI tech to companion robots for the elderly, a day with Alibaba and an afternoon with ZhongAn. Just bloody brilliant.

And if the days weren’t enough, we’ve also one night at Alibaba’s recently opened Flyzoo Hotel, staffed by robots…of course, and will be eating at Beijing’s first AI-powered restaurant. It can’t all be work, work, work right?

Acquisitions:
At a global level, we’ve been witnessing a shift in insurance companies to be more than ‘just’ insurance. Much of this derives out of the problem of customers not liking insurance (pretty much every aspect of it), coupled with the ever-changing consumer demands for immediacy, simplicity and mobility. Something, until recently, we’ve not often associated with the industry.

What we get is Generali providing babysitters for customers who have to stay in hospital, Discovery launching a behavioural bank, and Porto Seguro diversifying wholesale into car repairs and plumbing.

Future planning isn’t ever straight-forward. Especially when considering how rapidly tech innovation is changing the landscape. Our favourite recent client briefs was the simple one line:
‘What does our business look like in 10 years time?’

If you don’t know the answer to that question, or have a plan but could do with some research/insight to back it up, drop us a line. We can definitely help.

Partnerships:
Not much to report on partnerships this week. The main one is InsureMyTrip partnering with Assurex Global Partners; the former being the largest travel insurance comparison site in the US, the latter the largest privately-owned commercial insurance group. If travel and commercial is your thing, then this one is for you.

It always at this part of Sø.Nws where I realise I’ve been spending way too long on writing this. Time for a slightly abbreviated run through the rest.

New product launches:
Nationwide launches SmartMiles, a pay-per-mile product aimed at low-mileage drivers. Currently Illinois only with a 2019 plan to roll out across the US – no contracts, no long-term commitments. Good to see but very much table stakes. More interesting is how they’re dovetailing this as an acquisition driver for their SmartRide product.

MS Amlin launches Technology Combines – an all-risk policy for UK tech and innovation sector allowing clients to pick and choose products. Not sure it’s particularly innovative. Gives a level of flexibility, I guess.

Something I do like is Gen Re’s launch of their ‘NOW’ app. Using facial analytics tech and innovation from Lapetus Solutions, they’ve built a prototype to provide quotes against an uploaded ‘selfie’.  Based on what we’ve been seeing in China, we’re certain to be seeing more and more of this over the coming years.

And something that just blows my mind, is Allianz X has boosted their VC fund to €1bn. A crazy number and things must be going okay considering they started out in 2016 start with €430 million.

Lastly, this week’s Spøtlight instalment. We sat down with Andrew Leal, co-founder and CEO of pet insurance startup, Waggel. The company, co-founded by Apprentice 2017 contestant Ross Fretton, is positioning themselves as a complete pet wellbeing platform, insurance just one component of this. We’ve spent time with Andrew in a Partnership Day we ran for a client – he’s a seriously creative, entrepreneurial chap and I hope 2019 is a strong year for Waggel.

It’s got to be time to wrap this up. For the keener link-clicking readers amongst you, you’ll have noticed we’re now linking into the Sønr platform. If you’re not actively subscribed to Sønr, you won’t be able to see all the profile data, nor click further. Sorry about that. That said, drop us a line and we’ll be happy to demo you through the wider offering.

Before I go, please say you saw this earlier in the week.

Matt

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MATT CONNOLLY
Founder & CEO
+44 7788 711 104
www.tallt.ventures

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