Jack Ma, Boris Johnson and me

The experiment is over. After two weeks of people telling me how much they enjoy Sø.Nws landing on a Friday, it’s now back on a Friday.

You’re welcome.

Back to the Motherland
Having been born and raised in Bolton, it was a pleasure to head back up north for the BIBA conference. A big shout out to the BIBA team for such a fantastic event and to Shân Millie for an expertly delivered hackathon.

Standouts for me were Ben Rose from Aon Inpoint, an absolute natural on stage and the frontman for the winning hackathon team, chatting with the BBC newsreader, Huw Edwards, about how he got in shape through his love of boxing, and seeing the Insurtech 100 in print in the Insurance ecosytem Post.

Telematics remains a big buzzword in the insurance ecosystem, and Munich Re is looking to tap into the market after signing a global deal to integrate The Floow’s data collection, refinery, and scoring solutions with Munich Re’s insurance ecosystem products and actuarial expertise.

Allstate Canada is also expanding its telematics offering, launching a Drivewise app that feeds back on driving habits to help improve driving behaviour and road safety. Interestingly, the insurer has also promised policyholders won’t see a rise in premiums, regardless of driving behaviours.

Over in the home insurance market, Plymouth Rock has launched a new quote service that can deliver accurate prices in seconds. It’s a simple data play but nevertheless good to see the shift towards improved consumer experience.

Show Me The Money
It’s been another busy fortnight in the investment world, with Singapore-based start-up Biofourmis leading the way after it raised $35m for expansion in a Series B round. The company is doing some really interesting stuff with AI as it looks to improve patient outcomes by customising treatments after people have been discharged from hospital.

Ravin.ai is another looking to leverage the power of AI, with the Israeli and UK-based business securing a $4m seed round to develop AI to autonomously inspect vehicles for damage.

Over to Chicago (that’s right, no Sø.Nws would be complete without me telling you how much I love it over there) and Snapsheet has landed $29 million in a round led by Tola Capital. The money will be used to expand its smartphone-based insurance ecosystem claims solution beyond motor insurance and is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Allianz X, meanwhile, has announced a deal for finanzen.de, a leading European B2B online marketplace for high-value consumer traffic in the insurance and financial services sectors.

The Insurtech 100
In case you missed it, a quick reference to the Insurtech 100 we ran with the Insurance ecosystem Post.

As always, if you would like to know more about this please do drop me a note. We’re up to some seriously clever stuff with Sønr at the mo.

It’s special to be part of a team that’s growing so quickly, less fun when you have to keep moving.

Matt

p.s. We’re launching a full service proposition development side to the business on June 1st. Something we’ve been doing for a while, just now fully resourced and packaged up.

If you’re needing a hand coming up with innovative ideas or have something you need bringing to life, drop us a line. Not only do we bring unique access to market intelligence but also we’re up for putting money into the co-creation.

No one is quite sure what’s happened to all the vowels but if you did want a market intelligence and proposition development company to work with, we’re pretty exceptional.

Our vision is to accelerate corporate innovation and entrepreneurship by providing intelligence on the trends, competitor playbooks and global disruptive tech, and to create new opportunities with ambitious organisations around the world.

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