La start-up parisienne, qui a créé une assurance complémentaire santé intégralement dématérialisée, lève 12 millions d'euros pour développer son offre en France.
Une fois l'entreprise inscrite sur Alan, ses salariés peuvent s’y inscrire par eux-mêmes de manière totalement autonome, et peuvent résilier leur contrat à tout moment, sans intervention de leur employeur.
Depuis le 1er janvier 2016, les entreprises sont dans l’obligation de fournir une complémentaire santé à leurs salariés et de la financer à hauteur de 50% minimum.
Le montant
La start-up parisienne Alan, qui a créé une assurance complémentaire santé digitale, a finalisé un tour de table de 12 millions
Doté d’un budget de 5 millions d’euros, InVivo Invest a pour mission de faire bénéficier les start-up qu’il aura identifiées :
De la puissance du réseau InVivo
D’accompagner la montée en puissance de leurs projets
De leur ouvrir les portes des marchés agricoles et agroalimentaires via ses réseaux de distribution et ses filiales de mise en marché.
Les jeunes pousses financées par InVivo Invest seront également soutenues par une filiale ou un métier du groupe, parmi lesquels InVivo Agriculture, InVivo Retail et InVivo Wine.
« InVivo Invest accompagne la transformation digitale mise en place au sein du groupe InVivo. Tous nos métiers sont concernés par cette évolution, a fortiori nos salariés, projetés eux-aussi dans une dynamique de start-up. Dans la droite ligne de notre plan stratégique « 2025 by InVivo » nous voulons créer de la valeur à tous niveaux, et le numérique nous permet d’accélérer ce processus. » indique Thierry Blandinières, directeur général d’InVivo.
La direction générale du fonds sera confiée à Stéphane Marcel, la direction opérationnelle à Nicolas Ferras.
Le studio agro-digital : un accélérateur en plein cœur d’une métropole de la French Tech
Intégré aux nouveaux locaux de Smag, leader français des systèmes d’information pour l’agriculture et filiale d’InVivo Agriculture, le studio agro-digital sera un « espace ouvert » de 600 m², au sein des 2 600 m² occupés dans l’immeuble végétalisé Terra Verde, situé dans le parc d’activités Eurêka de Montpellier.
L’accélérateur travaille déjà en étroite collaboration avec l’écosystème montpelliérain, labellisé fin juillet 2016 réseau thématique French Tech « FoodTech ».
Retour sur « Nurture the Future » : l’évènement de la FoodTech montpelliéraine
Le 18 octobre dernier avait lieu la première édition de « Nurture the Future », une journée conçue en partenariat avec le Business Innovation Center de Montpellier et Montpellier SupAgro pour identifier les jeunes pousses capables de relever les défis de l’agriculture et de l’alimentaire 4.0. Parmi la quarantaine de start-up venues présenter leurs projets, certaines d’entre elles intégreront le studio agro-digital début 2017 et seront financées dans le cadre du lancement d’InVivo Invest.
Les technologies innovantes sont au coeur de nos investissements
ASV est un fond d’investissement de 230 millions d’euros (250 millions de USD) qui investit dans des levées en amorçage de 300 000 euros et plus (à travers ASV Early Stage) et dans des levées plus conséquentes – au-delà de 2 millions d’euros – pour des startups en forte croissance (à travers ASV Capital).
De l’intelligence artificielle au big data, de l’analyse prédictive au machine learning : les technologies innovantes sont au coeur de nos investissements.
Nous sommes aussi à la recherche de fondateurs et d’équipes avec une solide formation technique et un parcours entrepreneurial substantiel.
Quels sont vos derniers investissements dans le digital ou la relation client ?
Gasolead est une solution en big data de base de données emailing. Plus simplement, à partir de 3 URLs et intitulés de jobs que vous lui fournissez, Gasolead vous permet de générer jusqu’à 20 000 emails qualifiés par mois ! Peu importe le type de secteur ou le pays, la start-up vous assure un taux de “mail non delivery” égal à 0 % ; c’est même ce qui la distingue de ses concurrents. Gasolead vous accompagne en gérant pour vous la recherche de contacts qualifiés, vous permettant de vous concentrer sur le plus important : comprendre vos prospects et clients.
OneMoreCompany avec Evercontact : Evercontact est un service en ligne qui détecte et extrait les informations contenues dans les signatures des emails que vous recevez pour mettre à jour ou créer de nouveaux contacts dans votre carnet d’adresses. Le service fonctionne avec les messageries Gmail, GoogleApps et Outlook. Un connecteur permet également de mettre à jour ces mêmes données dans votre CRM et une extension Chrome permet de récupérer et d’ajouter à son carnet d’adresses des contacts trouvés sur le web.
Quelle est la cible de vos investissements et les montants que vous investissez ?
-200.000 euros à 2 millions d’euros pour le early stage
-2 millions d’euros à 20 millions d’euros pour le growth stage
Pensez-vous que la relation client passera par l’automatisation des agents (chatbots) ?
Oui prenons l’exemple de notre investissement chez Gasolead qui peut être assimilé comme un robot business developper, un assistant virtuel commercial.
Enfin votre actualité pour la fin d’année 2016 et début 2017 ?
Nous allons annoncer un investissement en Italie. Un communiqué de presse sera bientôt diffusé.
Significant capital investment in InsurTech for new insurance greenfield or startup companies is fueling massive innovation in products, services and business models, and de novo options. (Photo: iStock)
Just prior to the Italian Renaissance, guilds were formed in Florence and throughout Italy to bring together people of like occupations under a social network.
Their purpose was to agree upon standards and rules, represent the group to government, improve upon their art, science or trade, and to provide support services to families and widows when needed.
Working together, these guilds fostered Renaissance attributes. They were patrons of the arts. They contributed to the advancement of medicine and technology. They advanced construction methods and learning in all spheres. In fact, the end of many guilds was brought about when they were merged into universities. What the Renaissance did was create a cultural bridge from the Middle Ages or past to modern history.
However, the Renaissance didn’t just sprout up overnight. It was spurred on by a convergence of factors, the greatest of which was increased wealth. Trading in Florence had produced a new class of financier who was willing to fund artistic and scientific endeavors. Wealth created ease. Ease allowed time for thought and innovation.
Today’s Insurance Renaissance shares one very clear trait with the Renaissance of the 1400’s — in both cultures we find...
Innovations in practical sciences, such as mathematics and architecture, benefited from broader thinking. Fast-forward to today and the comparison to that time is striking, with a similar influx of money and a new class of insurance technology investment via InsurTech.
InsurTech as a concept has grown to become, not an official organization, but a collaborative movement. It has become a bridge from the
When Jeff Bezos talks business, the business community tends to listen. The founder, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com appeared on the Charlie Rose television show this past week, and his opening statement may be a familiar one to insurers: “Unlike most companies that are obsessed with the competition, we have an absolute obsession with the customer,” he said.
Having built Amazon.com into the largest online shopping retailer and ultimately the world’s largest internet sales website, Bezos’ personal wealth, as of October 30, is estimated to be $67 billion, ranking as the second richest person in the United States behind Bill Gates and the third richest in the world on Forbes’ The World's Billionaires list. But to hear Bezos tell it, a focus on long-term results is more important than a focus on short-term distractions, such as quarterly earnings reports.
Obviously, his business philosophy is working, and he says it’s tied to several specific tenets; being able to understand customer requirements and deliver as quickly as possible, take pride in operational excellence, take risks to innovate, and sell everything to everybody.
Let’s compare these tenets to the insurance industry. Across all lines of business, knowing your customer and what they want, and then delivering products and services quickly is proven to improve engagement, retention and customer satisfaction. Bezos started with a focus on customer experience and worked backwards, constantly focusing on his vision of growing the customer relationship. To improve on this, he launched Amazon Prime, an annual membership program that guarantees free shipping for qualified purchases, reducing customer friction, increasing the customer’s propensity to purchase more and improving customer experience with each shipment.
Taking pride in operational excellence speaks volumes to the technology challenges being faced by many insurers as they evaluate aging systems that can’t perform to the customers’ requirements, and the mechanism by which these systems operate. It also applies to the challenges associated with being able to hire and develop the best possible talent to strategize and execute a technology vision related to continuous improvement in all areas of the organization, which, of course, is no easy task when it comes to retiring legacy knowledge workers.
Amazon has taken criticism for promoting relentlessly high standards within its leadership ranks, but has a formal process by which leaders are responsible for bringing others up via coaching and sponsorship. “We are big on finding the root cause of defects in people and operations,” Bezos told Rose.
The insurance industry, by its nature, is risk averse, so innovation, at least until recently, has not been our industry’s strong suit. By comparison, Amazon’s ability to take risks to innovate is legendary. In 2006 the company launched Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a standalone business. By Q2 2016, AWS experienced $2.5 billion in revenue.
“If you do something along innovation lines you typically get about two years of runway before competition catches up with you,” said Bezos. This statement tends to fly in the face with his “obsession with the customer vs the competition” statement.
However, Amazon founded AWS for the customer, not for Amazon.com. “With AWS we got seven years on the runway, which allowed us to build an advantage with infrastructure, features and services. In the process, we realized Amazon.com needed this—we became our own customer.”
The “sell everything to everybody” tenet may have the least relevance to the insurance industry, but its boldness in spirit and approach is worth considering for insurers putting upsell and cross-sell plans in play. And, as emerging disruptors such as Lemonade and Trov enter the market, this tenet is causing insurers to rethink what and how they sell. Bezos insists that it’s the long-term view of the way Amazo
InsurTech has dominated financial headlines lately. ‘Should the insurance sector be worried?’ Yes, say our guests! In fact, the very question is absurd. Listen to the experts who joined us:
Leda Glyptis (@LedaGlyptis) – Director, Sapient Global Markets;
Freddy Macnamara (@_freddymac) – Founder and CEO of Cuvva;
Financial Times – China challenges London’s FinTech lead Link
FT Adviser – Minister pledges fintech sector support post-Brexit Link
Mirror – Cheeky eBay user selling plastic £5 note ‘printed upside-down’ for £65,000 Link
Finextra – Visa tells Europe to be ready for 3-D Secure 2.0 by April 2018 Link
Amazon Executives Are ‘Pleased’ With Results of Retail Bookstores So Far LINK
Big DDoS attacks hit Amazon Web Services customers, but Jassy assures cloud is secure LINK
Clydesdale ‘makes an offer to RBS for Williams & Glyn’ – BBC News LINK
Got a burning question or just want to shout of how much you’re loving what’s in your ears right now? Contact us on Twitter @FinTechInsider or @11FSTeam, or email on FinTechInsider@11fs.co.uk
Blockchain technology may solve many problems the insurtech industry faces. It could reduce costs spent on administration and claim processing, make underserved segments more accessible, enable immediately issued contracts, and increase transparency. Blockchain implications for the insurance industry are almost infinite. Its usage across the sector can open a whole world of new possibilities. Let’s discover the top 5 implementations of blockchain in insurtech and the way they are revolutionizing the sector.
Smart Contracts in Insurtech
Smart contracts are the blockchain powered technology that apparently has the most potential in insurtech. These are computer programs that verify and execute interactions between parties. They can provide customers and insurers with the possibility to manage claims in a transparent and responsive manner. With the help of blockchain, the process of agreements registration, verification, and execution has become much easier. Now, claims are automatically enforced by computer protocols without the need for a claims assessor. These contracts and claims are recorded onto a Blockchain and validated by the network, ensuring that only valid claims are paid. With the increasing efficiency of claims-handling, the customer experience improved greatly. Blockchain eliminates the extended process of document submission and third party verification. This in turn accelerates the underwriting process and reduces costs.
Smart Contracts are used in many cases where assets are transferred only on meeting certain conditions. Ethereum and Codius are blockchain platforms that help companies incorporate this technology into their solutions. Ethereum already powers a wide range of applications in such areas as Governance, crowdfunding, keyless access, financial derivatives trading using this protocol. Moreover, insurance company Allianz has recently announced its successful launch of a smart contract solution for automation of catastrophe swap transactions.
We spent the last two months focusing on the intersection of big data analytics, insurance, and technology in order to shine a light on the disruptive changes that are taking place in the industry. Vertafore did a lot of primary and secondary research in order to produce our free e-book on big data analytics and share our perspective, but we also think it’s important to provide you with the perspective of other influential members of the insurance industry.
So we took to Twitter and posed influencers with a question:
What role will big data play in disrupting the insurance industry -- will the insurance industry be disrupted by big data? If not, what do you think what big data's biggest impact will be?
Their answers are below.
Take a look at what they had to say. Do you agree? Do you disagree drastically? Let us know on Twitter – just tweet your comment and use the hashtag #disrupt16.
Expert round up
“SMA has done extensive research and strategy work on big data in insurance. The top areas for disruption are pricing, customer segmentation, actuarial analysis, risk analysis, and claims fraud. At least one-third of the insurers we have surveyed believe that big data will be a game-changer in these areas.”
Insurance has always been about data, science, zeros and ones. Now there is all this new data around us; whether new streams of data originating from social platforms and connected devices or the more traditional sources of data originating from public and private records. And there's tons of heat on how to apply analytics to uncover simple yet actionable data. The latter is what will turn data into information into discovery of new markets and products that will ultimately differentiate between winners and losers. Taking a space back and looking at insurance from a bird's eye view, we are in a highly-fragmented and competitive industry. Big data in itself is more noise. It's the information piece that's impactful. Obviously the road to actionable data will entail kissing many frogs and so being first-to-data is a huge advantage. Insurance startups like DataCubes and Carpe Data are an example of how carriers can access new datasets in their path to profitable segments and we all know that in insurance, not all clients are created equal. All in all, the area of Big Data is as much art as it is science and insurance is about to get a lot more entertaining.
As new sources of data about the people and things we are insuring become available, we gain new opportunities to identify and manage risk. In many cases, we can incentivize customers to play an active part by sharing data and, based on the insights from that data, modify their behavior to reduce risk. It’s a fantastic model for the insurance industry, one that offers greater transparency and value for all stakeholders.
Given limited IT budgets, life insurers should target digital investments to a few key areas that will have the most bang for the buck, say McKinsey's analysts. (Photo: Thinkstock)
It's long been understood that life insurers have lagged other sectors in digitizing their business processes and directing money to new technologies to try to gain a competitive edge.
The only question is, how much have they underinvested?
One answer comes from McKinsey & Co. In a new report, "Harnessing the Power of Digital in Life Insurance," the market research firm suggests that most carriers will have to "quadruple" spending on information technologies — back-office policy administration and underwriting systems, customer-facing web portals, mobile solutions for agents and advisors, among other business operations — to boost sales and their bottom line. The task is all the more urgent, the report warns, because of two forces buffeting the industry:
a marked decline in industry revenue (annual sales of new policies have dipped from about 17 million contracts in the 1980s to roughly 10 million today); and
Austin—Chiron Health, a telemedicine company with a system developed to let doctors and meet and chat with patients over video, has added about $1 million in equity funding to its seed round, according to CEO Andrew O’Hara.
The company added the funding in early October, and it brings Chiron’s total seed round to $4.7 million, O’Hara says. Chiron raised its first $2.3 million in December, which it announced along with the launch of apps for the iPhone and iPad. It added an Android app in May.
Part of the increase was because of convertible debt that has since been converted into equity, he says, declining to provide further detail.
Chiron is one of many digital health companies with offerings that connect physicians and patients, aiming to limit the complications of visiting a doctor’s office for something simple like a checkup or for lab results. The three-year-old startup focuses on small and mid-size practices.
Other startups with similar tools include San Francisco-based Spruce, which focuses on dermatologists, and Vidyo, a Hackensack, NJ-based company focused on helping people in rural areas chat with doctors. Adoption of telemedicine physicians and insurers has been slow, even as more physicians say they’re willing to use it.
O’Hara says he believes some of the hesitation to use video visits is based in a fear that insurers will only reimburse physicians offices for in-person visits. More insurers are reimbursing for telemedicine, O’Hara says, and helping physicians learn if they’ll be able to be reimbursed is part of Chiron’s value pitch.
Like other telemedicine companies, Chiron can integrate with major electronic health record systems, such as athenahealth, CloudCare, and Greenway. But Chiron’s software is able to check patient data against state and federal regulations about insurance reimbursement—the company calls it a “rules engine”—to make sure that a physician’s office will be reimbursed for video visit, O’Hara says.
If Chiron’s software says that a doctor can get a reimbursement from a patient’s insurer for a video chat visit, but it doesn’t work out for some reason, O’Hara says Chiron will pay for it. The company’s system is secure and HIPPA-compliant, he says.
“We’ve had some great traction in the last 12 to 18 months, and a big part of it is that the major payers out there are realizing that this is something that makes sense to be paying at similar level to in-person consultations,” O’Hara says. “We’re checking individual eligibility to the point where we guarantee reimbursement.”
Patients’ normal co-pay applies as if it were an in-person visit, O’Hara says. Chiron charges the doctor’s office a monthly subscription fee, but doesn’t list pricing publicly. O’Hara said
Common wisdom has it that established insurers are not able to leverage InsurTech – the use of digital technology innovations designed to squeeze out savings and efficiency – with the same efficacy as start-up enterprises. We challenged two assumptions in our last post and will now address the third.
In the last episode …
I previously examined the InsurTech landscape and its benefits for the insured and for the insurance supplier. I also reviewed a post by Michael Tempany, director at consultancy SMS Management & Technology Asia, which posited that established insurers cannot replicate offerings by dedicated InsurTech companies.
I suggested that two of the factors Tempany cited – established staff with a predilection for the status quo, and the use intermediaries – were a bit broad, and I cited examples from the Canadian environment.
But I saved the largest conundrum for last …
The third stumbling block for incumbents is ‘legacy systems’. Tempany does not mix words:
… traditional insurers are crippled by legacy systems — creaking green-screen pre-floppy behemoths that no amount of lipstick can overcome. They’re not capable of ever supporting a product offering like Lemonade’s.
Strong stuff; but here’s the logic:
– All traditional insurers have legacy systems.
– Legacy systems are incapable of supporting InsurTech.
∴ Traditional insurers are not capable of doing InsurTech.
Q.E.D.
There’s only one issue …
Traditional Insurers are already doing InsurTech.
As discussed in the last post, Economical Mutual created a new company – Sonnet – and created sophisticated analytic and customer interface tools to support the new direct writing enterprise.
Also, Gore Mutual developed front-end tools to enable its home business product and the unique distribution scheme and configured print products to serve the customers.
And, in both cases, the technologies are being adapted to support elements of the existing books of business for the traditional as well as the new business models.
Let me be clear on one thing. Tempany is more than 50% right in his assertions. Legacy systems are a very convenient whipping boys for not examining InsurTech (and other innovative technologies and approaches).
As significantly, suppliers are supporting InsurTech
Core system suppliers are watching InsurTech developments carefully and are responding. Denise Garth, SVP Strategic Marketing at Majesco, recently told us that their clients are looking to Majesco to be a strategic partner.
“As we have tracked, observed and talked to our customers and other influencers / leaders in the industry this year, we are convinced this is not a ‘new fad’, but a movement with substance that is just getting started,” Garth noted. She added, “They are seeking to define new business models and processes that create a better way to ‘do insurance.'”
At the recent Guidewire User Group meeting, CEO Marcus Ryu looked beyond the horizon and saw the future as expanding beyond the core systems. “The current era requires, first, surrounding th
Vast Visibility will use the investment to develop new digital solutions
UK insurtech firm Vast Visibility has sold a strategic stake in the business to private equity group HgCapital for an undisclosed sum.
The company provides the technology that powers aggregator sites such as The Bike Insurer, The Van Insurer, mustard.co.uk, Confused.com, Autotrader, Admiral and MCN.
Common wisdom has it that established insurers are not able to leverage InsurTech – the use of digital technology innovations designed to squeeze out savings and efficiency – with the same efficacy as start-up enterprises. We challenged two assumptions in our last post and will now address the third.
In the last episode …
I previously examined the InsurTech landscape and its benefits for the insured and for the insurance supplier. I also reviewed a post by Michael Tempany, director at consultancy SMS Management & Technology Asia, which posited that established insurers cannot replicate offerings by dedicated InsurTech companies.
I suggested that two of the factors Tempany cited – established staff with a predilection for the status quo, and the use intermediaries – were a bit broad, and I cited examples from the Canadian environment.
But I saved the largest conundrum for last …
The third stumbling block for incumbents is ‘legacy systems’. Tempany does not mix words:
… traditional insurers are crippled by legacy systems — creaking green-screen pre-floppy behemoths that no amount of lipstick can overcome. They’re not capable of ever supporting a product offering like Lemonade’s.
Strong stuff; but here’s the logic:
– All traditional insurers have legacy systems.
– Legacy systems are incapable of supporting InsurTech.
∴ Traditional insurers are not capable of doing InsurTech.
Q.E.D.
There’s only one issue …
Traditional Insurers are already doing InsurTech.
As discussed in the last post, Economical Mutual created a new company – Sonnet – and created sophisticated analytic and customer interface tools to support the new direct writing enterprise.
Also, Gore Mutual developed front-end tools to enable its home business product and the unique distribution scheme and configured print products to serve the customers.
And, in both cases, the technologies are being adapted to support elements of the existing books of business for the traditional as well as the new business models.
Let me be clear on one thing. Tempany is more than 50% right in his assertions. Legacy systems are a very convenient whipping boys for not examining InsurTech (and other innovative technologies and approaches).
As significantly, suppliers are supporting InsurTech
Core system suppliers are watching InsurTech developments carefully and are responding. Denise Garth, SVP Strategic Marketing at Majesco, recently told us that their clients are looking to Majesco to be a strategic partner.
“As we have tracked, observed and talked to our customers and other influencers / leaders in the industry this year, we are convinced this is not a ‘new fad’, but a movement with substance that is just getting started,” Garth noted. She added, “They are seeking to define new business models and processes that create a better way to ‘do insurance.'”
At the recent Guidewire User Group meeting, CEO Marcus Ryu looked beyond the horizon and saw the future as expanding beyond the core systems. “The current era requires, first, surrounding th
From the start of 2010, an unprecedented amount of money has been poured into FinTech start-ups around the world. Venture capitalists, private equity firms, corporates and a host of other players have invested more than $50 billion in 2,500 firms since 2010, making the FinTech industry one of the most exciting prospects of the modern economy. After years of investment, FinTech is now reaching maturity and achieving a mainstream position in the marketplace. Insurers must ask themselves to what extent they want to be involved in the FinTech revolution.
As the FinTech industry has reached maturity, there has been a greater level of diversification in the market. Previously untouched industries are now being put under the microscope, andthe insurance industry is emerging as the next big thing. Where before FinTech has been focussed on retail payments, now strategy and investment are setting their sights on the insurance industry. In 2015, global investment in InsurTech more than tripled from the previous year, signalling a significant change in the scope and strategy of the insurance industry.
Investors in InsurTech are seeking to disrupt and enhance traditional practices within the industry. FinTech start-ups are divided between being collaborative or competitive. Competitive FinTechs pose two main threats to the insurance industry – loss of revenue, and loss of relevance. On the other hand, collaborative FinTechs can offer insurers, amongst other things,reduced operating costs. Investors are beginning to favour collaborative FinTechs, realizing the benefits from welcoming enhancement to their practices rather than fighting disruption from an emergent industry player. Total investment in FinTech start-ups favoured collaboration, with investment rising from 44% in 2014, to 70% in 2015. Investment in competitive FinTechs reduced from 56% in 2014, to 30% in 2015. Insurers must guarantee their future security by welcoming InsurTech companies with open arms.
InsurTech offers a golden opportunity to revolutionize the industry. Most insurers are still tied to a traditional business model, based on pooling risk, calculating average pricing and generating gross premium income. This model is increasingly under threat from digital technologies, such as wearable devices, smart objects and connected cars. Where there is a threat, there is also an opportunity – these innovative technologies offer a new, rich data source, providing new possibilities for underwriting, increasing customer centricity and reducing costs.
InsurTech companies have the ability to transform the operational practices of the insurance industry, to the benefit of both business and customer. 67% of all InsurTech deals have been involved companies who specialize in insurance automation, and 80% of all funding has been for non-life insurance innovation. For example, Censio has developed software that automatically monitors and measures driver data for auto insurers. Similarly, Oscar Health Insurance has partnered with wearable-device company Misfit, rewarding healthy customers by automatically linking their biometric information to their health insurance. The advantages of embracing InsurTech are plain for all to see – it is essential that insurers do not get left behind the rest of the financial world.
A great way to achieve all of these goals is to implement a personal financial management tool, such as the PowerWallet Plus personal financial management platform. It is available now to be white-labelled and branded specifically for your business! PowerWallet Plus is now offering new cu
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