AI, health, cyber: What's shaping the 2025 landscape

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New client kick offs.
A lot of Londoning.
Plus a tonne of new opportunities coming our way.

It definitely feels like a pivotal year for Sønr. Maybe for the industry more broadly. There’s a very real sense that venture clienting and open innovation are here to stay.

We’re noticing a shift in budgets being reallocated toward getting the strategy and thinking right. Market and competitor tracking, along with tech scouting and assessment, are now seen as essential groundwork before moving into vendor selection or PoCs.

Which is good. Finally.

Back in London Town for us on Monday. This time for the inaugural ITC London 🚀🚀

Let me know if you’re about.

Floods, tornadoes and parametric plays

A few interesting parametric plays from around the world.

Close to home Previsico, the flood forecasting company, has partnered with Descartes to offer enhanced flood risk coverage for businesses in the UK and Ireland.

Through Previsico’s IoT flood sensors and Descartes’ parametric policies, businesses will receive timely flood warnings and fast claims payments. Nice.

I also clocked Descartes recently introduced a parametric product to protect solar farms in the United States against tornado damage.

In India Global Parametrics has partnered with Frontier Markets to provide crop insurance specifically for women farmers. This I love.

The product, as you might expect, focuses on covering crop losses due to adverse weather conditions, and is part of a broader effort to promote financial inclusion and resilience for underserved communities in rural India.

Finally, the Well Done Foundation (WDF) has introduced the “Insured Carbon” program offering high-integrity carbon credits backed by AXA’s parametric insurance.

The program focuses on reducing methane emissions by capping abandoned oil and gas wells, with every carbon credit undergoing strict third-party validation and verification. Guarantees are in place for up to 20 years, and blockchain is used to ensure full transparency in tracking and transferring credit ownership.

Oh, if only my younger self could see me writing this stuff 😬

Embedded funding and Asian growth

On the embedded front Spain’s Weecover closed their €4.2m round this week.

The new funding is set to boost growth and accelerate international expansion plans. I wish them luck.

And further afield, Lazada – Southeast Asia’s leading eCommerce platform, and Peak3 have launched a JV. The plan is to embed a mix of insurance propositions into Lazada’s platform, connecting about 160 million active users to more than one million actively selling sellers every month.

Health – super apps, funding and mega trends

A couple of weeks back, and one I think I may have missed, was the launch of AXA Global Healthcare’s new all-in-one app, which hopes to ‘redefine global health and wellbeing experiences for insurance members worldwide’.

Powered by The CareVoice the ‘super app’ integrates healthcare, insurance, and wellbeing tools, offering features like 24/7 virtual doctor consultations, mental health support, and second medical opinions.

Members can also access a global network of healthcare providers, manage claims and set personalised health goals – all in one platform. Nice.

On the funding side, Sami, the Brazilian healthtech operator, has raised $10m in a Series B extension round.

Whilst not yet profitable they expect to achieve 50%+ growth this year and expand beyond the 21,000 lives currently managed, which includes more than 10,000 small businesses.

And finally one for the diary.

February 6th at 2pm GMT/9am EST – Megatrends for 2025 in Health Insurance.

Hosted by Peter Ohnemus, CEO of dacadoo, alongside Kate Casey and Orla King from Irish Life, they’ll be exploring the challenges of health engagement, sharing insights from Irish Life’s Health of the Nation Report 2024, as well as getting into the transformative impact of the MyLife app.

Plus, some trends!

No AI. No funding. Maybe

It’s all about the data. It always has been and for a good while still, will continue to be.

And this is where the Instabase crew fit in.

Founded in 2015 they were a pioneer in using AI for unstructured data management. And since then it’s been constant growth, with the most recent update being their successful $100m Series D. Nice work team.

And AI tech funding news keeps rolling…

Qumis, an AI platform designed to streamline policy analysis for claims, brokering, and compliance, has secured a $2.3m Pre-Seed.

Deep Vector, an AI platform for underwriting document analysis, has secured a $1.5m Seed.

inRev, an AI-driven platform for underwriting profitable surety premiums, raised $3.75m. Also a Seed round.

XILO, the AI workflow automation provider, has raised a $7.2m Series A.

And Naked, the AI-powered digital insurance platform, has raised $38m in a Series B2.

I wonder when we’ll assume AI is interwoven into the fabric of every company 🤔

If you’d like to know more about any of these, follow the links into the Sønr platform. Or drop me a line. Happy to go a little deeper.

Cyber funding, M&A and new solutions

Let’s get into some cyber.

Zynap, a Barcelona-based cybersecurity startup, has secured €5.7m to continue developing its AI-powered cybersecurity platform.

Still to launch, the plan is to anticipate and neutralise cyber risks before they strike. Sounds like a good plan to me.

On the M&A front Darktrace has today announced the takeover of Cado Security, a London-based cybersecurity startup that specialises in cloud data.

Cado conducts forensic investigations on cloud data to uncover signs of compromise or threats.

And on the new product side of things, BOXX Insurance has introduced a new solution.

In partnership with World Travel Protection, the service offers continuous monitoring of digital risks, alerts on cyber breaches, and identifies theft protection by scanning the dark web for compromised information.

I also clocked BOXX has announced three new leadership hires to support its expansion in the US. Nice.

Finally, WTW has launched CyCore Asia targeting Hong Kong and Singaporean businesses. Underwritten by QBE Insurance and AXA XL, CyCore Asia provides a primary insurance capacity of up to $15m. Nice work WTW. And QBE. And AXA XL.