Goldrush 2.0.

Hello.

Insurtech is dead. We’re all tech vendors now.
2024. The year of incrementalism (and opportunity).
Goldrush 2.0.

The 3 chapters of my Mexico Insurtech Summit keynote.

Want to know more? Drop me a line.

Great to be in Mexico City again. Congrats to Oscar, Santiago and the wider AIM team for bringing together so many innovators from across LatAm. There is a BIG opportunity out there and yet, I’ve a feeling we’ll see the startups/scaleups stealing a march before the big players [have to] go on an expensive shopping spree.

Right, let’s get into some innovation news from around the world.

Collaboration drives insurance innovation

I’m going to kick off with a great little article titled:
The Key to Innovation: Meeting Clients’ Unmet Needs in the Insurance Industry is Collaboration

It’s written by one of our Sønr clients, Ollie Narraway from WTW, and incorporates thinking from Iryna Chekanava and Rob Jarvis (who also happen to be Sønr clients!), from Lloyd’s Lab and Tokio Marine respectively.

It emphasises the criticality of collaboration for innovation across insurance. A truth I couldn’t agree with more.

Key takeaways from the article include the need for brokers and insurers to engage early to evaluate new solutions, the importance of joint ideation to tackle tough challenges like climate transition and supply chain risks, and the value of curiosity and cross-collaboration within and across organisations.

If all this connects you should probably do two things.

1. Read the article
2. Get in touch with Sønr

At Sønr we help (re)insurers and brokers around the world explore market trends, track competitor activity, and scout and assess best-in-class tech companies. The important bit though is we also help them collaborate through our Accelerate model.

Great work Ollie and crew.

Sorry to have hijacked your article and use it as a plug for Sønr 😬

Carbon, weather, investments and M&A

Marsh and We2Sure have unveiled an interesting and innovative insurance facility to tackle fraud risks in the carbon credit market.

With the support from insurers like Sompo, Brit, and Talbot, it will protect businesses in the UK, EU, and US by ensuring the validity of carbon credits with AI and satellite technology that monitors projects in real time. Nice.

Sticking with carbon, early-stage climate startup Artio is worth checking out. It’s just announced a £550k fundraise to create insurance products that enable investors to back early-stage carbon removal projects by providing risk mitigation from day one.

Finally pushing the tangential boundaries to the fullest, Intact has acquired Jiffy, a Canadian home maintenance app founded in 2015.

Intact supports and promotes climate resilience (see, that’s the link 🤷) by offering essential maintenance solutions that help minimise the risks associated with extreme weather. Lovely.

Cyber – a key risk for 2025

Back into specialty and one of the big focus areas for 2025 has got to be cyber.

A couple to report on this week.

Another one of Sønr’s much-loved clients, Chaucer, has partnered with Lloyd’s Syndicate 1176 to develop a cyber insurance policy specifically designed for nuclear power plants (NPPs).

And Howden has launched Howden Safe+, a cyber insurance solution developed in partnership with Safe Security aimed at clients with revenues between $250m and $2bn. It is backed by Mosaic Insurance, Chubb and Liberty Specialty Markets.

Life, health and grocery shopping

We kicked off SøNws talking about collaboration. Let’s keep the theme going.

In the US, Allstate Financial Services has partnered with Covr Financial Technologies to provide life, long-term care, and disability insurance solutions through Covr’s platform. The collaboration also includes case management services to support customers through the insurance process in the hope to enhance the overall experience.

On the health side a couple of particularly interesting ones:

I’m sure by now you know my love of French health insurance startup Alan.

Well, this week it unveiled ‘Mo’, an AI-powered chatbot designed to complement its healthcare super app vision.

With plans to enhance Mo’s personalisation and memory capabilities, Alan envisions transforming it into a comprehensive health companion. This I like very much and it’s not difficult to think just how this customer-facing tech will advance over the coming years.

One from the UK I thought promising comes from good ol’ supermarket chain Tesco.

It is piloting a new concept, alongside UK-based healthcare companies, to provide convenient health services alongside shopping.

In this instance, customers will have access to menopause consultations from online clinic Stella, including advice on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), as well as healthcare services like virtual GP appointments, weight management, and advice on pregnancy nutrition.

Interesting right?

The plan is to reduce NHS pressure, make healthcare more accessible, and if successful, expand the pilot to additional stores across 2025.

Insurtech Summit Awards

Right, the moment [everyone/some of you] [may/may not] have been waiting for. The winners of the AIP Awards AND the winners of the Swiss Insurtech Awards. Two events I was lucky enough to get to in the past couple of weeks.

Kicking things off with LatAm.

It was the first edition of the AIP Awards at the Mexico Insurtech Summit celebrating the innovation and transformative impact of tech companies and incumbents alike.

Drum roll please…

• Traditional Reinsurers and Insurers that Transform: BNP Paribas Cardif Colombia
• New Business Model: BNP Paribas Cardif Colombia
• Insurance Distributor: CoverGo
• Technological Enabler: Figuro
• Project with Social and/or Environmental Impact: Betterfly
• Outstanding Collaborative Partner: Pax Assistance
• And finally, Insurtech of the Year: Medismart

On to Zurich where the winners were…

• Impact on Digital Health: Exploris Health AG
• Impact on Embedded Insurance: LedgerTech
• Impact on Underwriting Excellence: s360.life
• Impact on Claims Excellence: Qantev
• And finally, Insurtech of the Year: Calvin Risk

I’m not sure if any of the Swiss Insurtech videos will be made public but, if so, you should definitely tune into the following;

1. Are you prepared to be a GenAi-Native Insurer with Nigel Walsh and Kilian Blum
2. Innovative Strategies for a Safer Digital Future with Daljitt Barn and Shira Kaplan
3. Safeguarding the Future: Innovative Insurance models for the new world with Liza Engel and Coenraad Vrolijk

Insurtech. Or maybe just Tech.

I appreciate the provocation of the phrase like ‘insurtech is dead’.

But it’s kinda true.
Or at least we need to move beyond the terminology.

At Sønr we spend so much time exploring new trends/markets/innovation on behalf of our clients. And so very little of that is looking within the traditional insurtech space.

So let’s bring a couple of broader plays into this week’s newsletter.

For example Argentina-based fintech Ualá has raised a $300m Series E, led by none other than Allianz X at a valuation of $2.75bn. Ooosh.

Founded in 2017, Ualá operates across Latin America and serves 8 million users, with 17% of Argentina’s adult population using its services. The neobank offers a range of financial products, including payments, credit, merchant acquiring, and investments. Allianz X’s investment underscores their strategic partnership to explore new customer segments and growth opportunities in the region.

Another, again somewhat outside of the traditional ‘insurtech’, is Starfish Space, a satellite servicing startup. This week it raised $29m in a round that included Munich Re Ventures amongst others.

Wrap up

Pet insurance startup ManyPets is exiting the US market in an effort to focus on the UK market.

And finally, the latest Gallagher Re Global InsurTech Report is out. And as always, packed with brilliantly valuable insights into the latest and greatest data, case studies and innovation across the insurance sector.

Top job Andrew Johnston, Freddie Scarratt and team.

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Right, it’s time to indulge in some family goodness.

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Have a great weekend.

Matt

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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