Congratulations to all you guys. And to the wider team of course.
I’ve been coming to ITC since 2018 and that was easily the best yet. Beautifully curated, presented and exceptionally well executed. 10 out of 10.
I’m just sorry I missed the Scott Kelly astronaut chat.
We did our best to compensate!
Right, let’s get into the week’s insurance innovation news. I’ll do a proper ITC wrap up another time (when it’s not the middle of the night 😵). First up, one close to home.
Travelers – opportunity validation + co-creation
If you follow my LinkedIn you’ll have seen we ran a fantastic session with the Travelers Claim team on Tuesday this week.
Over the past few months we’ve gone deep into exploring business needs, market opportunities, and prioritised use cases. We’ve scouted for the best-in-class technology solutions, qualified them, and invited them to Vegas.
In just one day, we ran a number of concurrent co-creation sessions where folk from Travelers were paired with the relevant tech company. The challenge – two things:
To ideate (do people still use ideate?!) a BIG vision for what a partnership could achieve
To pull together a business case for a PoC designed to validate the vision
Oh, and then to co-pitch that back into Travelers’ leadership! Three things!
Just so good.
And the result? Well, hey. You’ve got a dream client, amazing tech cos, and an outrageously well prepped Sønr team. Naturally, it was pretty freaking brilliant 👊🏻
If you’d like to know more about how we run these sessions, drop us a line.
If you’d like to know more about what Travelers are working on. Not a chance. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…n’ all that.
From Claim to Claims
A comment I heard a few times this week was a sense that fewer new insurtechs were being launched.
I haven’t dived into the data but I share the sentiment. It’d make sense, right? The market is suppressed. Capital is constrained. The focus is on solutions designed to accelerate the business of today; no more 10-year moonshots.
For some entrepreneurs, a turn off. For others, the perfect time to launch something – less competition, cheaper resources, talent availability, ++.
And if you’re backed by one of the world’s largest claims management providers, even easier. This week Crawford & Company launched Turvi, a new insurtech designed to help solve ‘big problems’ in the insurance claims process.
I haven’t had a chance to dig into it too much but it’s worth reading their press release if it’s of interest.
Another bit of news in the world of claims comes from Quantev.
These guys operate in the life and health space, using historical claims data to better understand patient journeys and behaviours. Oh and the news bit…they’ve just raised a €30m round. Nice.
Embedded Asia
Heading over to Asia and MoneyHero is now leveraging bolttech’s insurance exchange technology to power its new car insurance platform. Love this.
The new digital marketplace enhances MoneyHero’s insurance brokerage and conversion expertise, offering a beautifully streamlined end-to-end consumer journey across Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines.
I was chatting with the bolttech team in Vegas and they remain one of my favs. Their ambition, energy, and drive to shake/wake (🤷) up the insurance industry is infectious. In an industry that is often criticised for its slow pace and lack of innovation, bolttech’s rapid growth and positive impact is seriously refreshing.
I might just be writing more about these guys next time. Watch this space.
Stepping into Southeast Asian and full-stack PasarPolis has announced an expansion of its strategic partnership with Gojek, Indonesia’s top on-demand service.
This collaboration is another step towards PasarPolis’ mission to ‘democratise insurance’ by making it accessible to millions of Indonesians. Which I love btw.
And so by leveraging GoTo’s digital ecosystem, PasarPolis can offer seamless and affordable insurance solutions that integrate directly into everyday services like mobility, delivery, and logistics. Nice.
Clients, not clients. And specialty
A bit of client news. And seemingly a bit of non client news.
QBE International Markets has announced it will launch a new US Inland Marine offering next year across all 50 states as it expands its product suite.
And Tokio Marine HCC based in Texas, announced the expansion of its product offering with its entry into the Excess Casualty market.
On the cyber front Beazley (which, outrageously, is not a Sønr client…yet 😬!), has launched Beazley Quantum – a cyber consortium providing cover for corporates with a turnover in excess of $1bn.
And finally Stoïk, which protects companies turning over €750m or less, has secured a $27m Series B.
Three VCs and a French startup walk Into a Canadian bar
It’s getting late. I think I ought to wrap this one up before it becomes any more nonsensical.
A quick investment roundup.
COVU, an AI-native services provider for insurance agencies, has raised $12.5m in a combination of equity and debt financing.
Diesta, a London-based B2B SaaS payment company, has announced a $3.8m Seed round.
And Pinpoint Predictive, a risk assessment platform for P&C Insurers, has disclosed a Series A raise albeit not much more than that.
But the big news (no offense to those above!) is French health insurer Alan, which just a few weeks back raised €173m at a €4bn valuation, has received approval from OSFI which will allow them to launch in Canada.
This is huge. The average Canadian health insurer was founded 108 years ago; the top 3 control 65% of the $60bn/year market. Couple that with a painful NPS average of -8 and it screams opportunity.
I wish them luck and look forward to seeing how they get on.
Silicon Valley > Vegas > Paris
Amazing just what you can pack into 10 days.
72 hours in Silicon Valley with 18 health insurers from around the world.
72 hours in the Californian hills catching up with my sister.
72 hours in Vegas with ~10,000 insurance folk.
+ travel
– sleep
= today
Tomorrow, it’s repack and off to Paris.
I’ll be spending a chunk of time with clients but would love to catch up with others whilst in town. If you’re in Paris or have a friend/colleague I can connect with, please let me know.
Oh and if anyone is bessies with France’s first AI Minister, Clara Chappaz, and can make an intro, you get extra points.
–
Right, that’s me. Done. Done. Done.
To all those I caught up with in Vegas, it was beautiful.
For those who won’t be joining me next Friday for champagne, oysters and coquilles Saint-Jacques, we’re sponsoring Camelot’s Innovation Hour. It’s not as tasty but should make for a great listen.
Until next time. Or as they say in Paris, au plaisir.
