The Corporate Venture Capital-as-a-Service Influencer

Last day at @AXAVentures as #GP ! The "#Insurtech #VC" will return (@Minh_Q_Tran)

29/9/2013 = AXA Seed Factory's launch (10m€)

 

29/4/2017 = AXA Strategic Ventures' new website (275m$)

 

#Insurtech #Disruption - What the Top10 Global Reinsurance will do?

The top 10 excerpt from the top 50 global reinsurer list in A.M. Best’s report (shown below) reveals that both Swiss Re and Munich Re saw total reinsurance premiums fall in 2015. While Munich’s premiums fell just a little bit more than Swiss Re—roughly 5 percent for Munich vs. 3 percent for Swiss Re—neither saw a decline close to the double-digit drop recorded for Berkshire Hathaway’s reinsurance operations.

via www.insurancejournal.com

Digital Transformation in Finance is Triggered by InsurTech & FinTech startups

Interesting datapoint on trends in #Insurtech from this article

Nephila, State National back #insurtech development platform Boost | Artemis.bm

As InsurTech investment continues apace, questions are often asked about the ability of startups to launch into a sector that is heavily regulated and requires significant capital. In answer to this question, leading ILS fund manager Nephila Capital, its fronting partner State National and some top VCs are backing a platform designed to take the pain out of going to market.

Enter start-up company Boost Insurance, which has just received $3 million of funding in an investment round led by Norwest Venture Partners along with participation from IA Capital Group, Greycroft Partners, fronting and program management specialist State National Companies and the world’s largest catastrophe re/insurance and weather risk investment manager Nephila Capital.

Boost Insurance is being launched as a platform to help InsurTech start-ups through the often painful process of getting started in the risk business, with the mission of “scaling a unique development platform that streamlines the go-to-market process for insurtech startups and innovative insurance products.”

The company will offer a turnkey approach to enabling early-stage and expanding InsurTech startups to get their products to market more quickly and easily, providing tools, mechanisms and platforms where real insurance and reinsurance business can be transacted in real volume.

Boost founder and CEO Alex Maffeo, previously the lead insurtech expert at venture capital firm IA Capital Group, identified the go-to-market timeline as a critical issue facing insurtech start-up entrepreneurs today.

In response to the issue, Maffeo formed and incubated Boost at IA Capital and now, after raising this funding round and getting initial industry partners Nephila and State National on board, Boost is ready to launch.

“There are many resources for educating entrepreneurs and assisting with the development of business models, however there is no insurance industry nexus that provides all of the tools and services for launching a startup in the insurance space,” explained Maffeo.

“Traditional insurance carriers provide the valuable expertise to help entrepreneurs avoid common industry pitfalls, but often cannot meet the fast-paced demands of a startup and lack the technology to integrate efficiently. Boost offers the best of both worlds: technology and startup sector expertise, as well as the highest-quality re/insurance partners,” he continued.

State National and Nephila have backed a number of insurtech start-ups over the years, and likewise came to the conclusion that the re/insurance ecosystem would be best served by their contributing experience and capabilities to an industry initiative.

With a focus on distribution and product-focused start-ups looking to disrupt the $600 billion property and casualty insurance market, the Boost Insurtech Platform will offer streamlined access to regulated insurance paper and capacity, through partners such as State National and Nephila Capital.

This model, of leveraging a program fronting manager with rated insurance paper, alongside capital markets-backed reinsurance capacity, is precisely the manner in which Nephila itself has moved along the value-chain over the past 20 years to steadily increase the efficiency of its investors’ capital.

With insurtech start-ups already targeting efficiency, a platform providing them with a direct route from underwritten risk to capacity will reduce their go-to-market friction, cost and timelines.

Distribution and product-centric st

via www.artemis.bm

#Insurtech = #AXA and #Blockchain with #Fizzy

Ethereum : pour le fondateur du projet, la bulle est réelle - ZDNet

Les Initial Coin Offering (ICO) ont la côte ces derniers mois. Ce mécanisme a été popularisé au sein de l’écosystème Ethereum et représente aujourd’hui une alternative aux levées de fonds traditionnelles pour les start-ups évoluant dans l’univers des technologies blockchain. Cette technique permet à une start-up de mettre en vente des « tokens » ayant différentes propriétés et fonctions. Les utilisateurs qui souhaitent soutenir le projet peuvent acheter et revendre ces tokens et ainsi financer le développement de la société les ayant émises, ou spéculer sur la montée ou perte de valeur de ces différents tokens.

 

La valeur réelle de ces différents tokens est généralement hypothétique et se base souvent sur les seules promesses de la société émettrice, qui compte sur l’argent ainsi réuni pour financer son projet. Ce mécanisme est devenu extrêmement populaire, car il a permis à de nombreuses sociétés de lever des sommes conséquentes.

Mais pour le fondateur d’Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, l’écosystème est aujourd’hui « en pleine bulle » et le retour de bâton risque de faire des dégâts. Les propos de Buterin sont rapportés par le site Finances Magnates, qui reprend des informations obtenues par le quotidien israélien TheMarker. Selon lui, l’actuelle popularité des ICO va conduire le marché à se remettre en question face à la profusion de nouveaux tokens émis par des sociétés dont le projet n’est pas toujours évident.

ICO mais pas trop

« Cela serait une erreur de sous-estimer l’utilité des ICO ou de dire qu’elles sont néfastes. Les ICO sont intéressantes, car elles permettent de facilement financer des projets open source, ce qui n’est habituellement pas évident. J’ai crée Ethereum grâce à une ICO. Ce que nous voyons aujourd’hui, ce sont des gens qui poussent ce concept trop loin et certains projets émettent des tokens, non pas parce que cela a du sens, mais parce que cela leur permet d’avoir un produit à vendre » a-t-il expliqué.

Le fondateur explique que ce phénomène de bulle n’a rien de surprenant dans un secteur des cryptomonnaies encore très jeune. Il s’attend à ce que de nombreux projets s’effondrent, le temps que les investisseurs aient développé des outils et des méthodes afin de mieux identifier les projets pérennes et les différencier de ceux voués à l’échec. Mais le Russo-Canadien est conscient du risque que cela peut représenter pour Ethereum dans son ensemble : « Si trop d’ICO se soldent par un échec, cela représente un risque pour Ethereum. Nous devons éviter de trop mettre en avant ces projets. »

via www.zdnet.fr

Key Insights between #Insurance companies and #Insurtech startups (PWC)

À quoi ressemblera le monde de l’assurance de demain? | Conseiller

Près d’un assureur sur deux dans le monde a déjà noué un partenariat avec une InsurTech, mais la majorité des professionnels du secteur estime que ces dernières constituent une menace pour leur prospérité, selon une étude publiée en juillet par PwC.

Ils sont 56 % des assureurs de la planète à juger que la version assurance des FinTech risque de leur faire perdre 20 % de leur chiffre d’affaires, assure le rapport Global InsurTech Report: Insurance’s new normal, driving innovation with InsurTech (en anglais seulement), tandis que 20 % d’entre eux croient même que cette perte potentielle pourrait représenter jusqu’à 40 % de ce montant.

Face à ce phénomène, le secteur ne reste pas les bras croisés, puisque 45 % des compagnies d’assurance mondiales affirment avoir déjà noué un partenariat avec une InsurTech, comparativement à 28 % l’an dernier. Un résultat qui, selon PwC, « démontre une accélération de la transformation digitale » en cours au sein de l’industrie à l’heure où 94 % de ses acteurs reconnaissent que « l’engagement client et une meilleure connaissance des risques sont aujourd’hui les tendances les plus importantes en matière d’innovation ».

LES ASSUREURS TRADITIONNELS SE TRANSFORMENT…

Plus de la moitié (52 %) des assureurs croient cependant que l’innovation doit devenir un élément central de leur stratégie, montre l’enquête, même s’ils identifient celle-ci comme étant une menace. Dans ce contexte, poursuit la firme, « ils perçoivent et comprennent désormais mieux les avantages que les activités des InsurTech peuvent apporter à leur secteur », notamment en matière de développement de produits et de services, d’augmentation de la base de données clients et d’optimisation des capacités analytiques.

« De plus en plus, les compagnies d’assurance sont en train de réaliser le potentiel que recèlent les InsurTech. Si les assureurs peuvent utiliser l’IA et le data analytics pour aider leurs clients à éviter les sinistres, tout en proposant les services réactifs qu’ils attendent d’autres secteurs, ils seront à même de transformer l’image de l’assurance auprès des clients », relève Pauline Adam-Kalfon, directrice du secteur de l’assurance chez PwC.

En outre, l’étude souligne que les assureurs qui s’associent souvent avec des acteurs innovants semblent « plus actifs que ceux du secteur des services financiers » et « davantage en position de surveillance et de réponse aux FinTech ». Toutefois, 63 % des professionnels interrogés se disent préoccupés par la question de la réglementation et de la protection des données personnelles quand ils collaborent avec des start-up.

via www.conseiller.ca

Will You Survive the Great #InsurTech Disruption? - Risk & Insurance : Risk & Insurance

In insurance, whoever holds the data, holds the power.

That’s because data is the key to effective risk assessment and underwriting.

Big Data and analytics are forcing insurers to adjust their processes when it comes to collecting and using data. With the expansion of the Internet of Things, sensor technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence, there is more information available than ever before.

The abundance of data – and the technology used to capture it – is driving profound disruption in the relationship structure of the insurance industry. As the traditional gatherers and guards of massive amounts of data, insurers face threats from new, tech-savvy competitors who can adapt to changes more quickly.

“There are very powerful trends coming together to cause serious industry disruption. That can be a big threat, but if insurers start responding now and embracing the change, it could also be a big opportunity,” said James Dodge, Senior Consultant, Advanced Analytics & Data Solutions, Milliman.

InsureTech Overturning the Status Quo

James Dodge, Senior Consultant, Advanced Analytics & Data Solutions

Technologists, data scientists and their deep-pocketed capital backers are jumping in with both feet. Though lacking insurance expertise, they see the vast opportunity to harness the data that insurers need. In doing so, they present a threat to traditional insurers, especially smaller and mid-size companies who lack their own large data stores.

“Not a lot of Insuretech companies actually want to be in insurance,” said Robert Meyer, FCAS, MAAA, Principal, Consulting Actuary, Milliman. “It’s a highly regulated industry that requires a lot of capital, and few have actually jumped into the pool of taking on risk. But they are positioning themselves as the purveyors of data.”

Distribution is a key area of focus for many Insuretech startups. Specifically, the new players think they can disintermediate brokers for small and mid-size accounts.

But there are other ways that technology can profoundly change insurance distribution.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), especially in the case of IoT-enabled ‘connected cars,’ are one example of a new competitive threat to traditional distribution. Instead of providing auto coverage through a traditional carrier, they may try to capture more margin by partnering with an InsureTech startup.

“Say, for example, a young InsureTech firm builds a great app and sells it to a reinsurer. The OEM may decide they want to offer that as a value-added bundled of

via riskandinsurance.com

The #Insurtech #VC - IT Trends according to @MunichRe

Peer to peer insurance: why traditional insurers must wake up | Insurance Business

The following is an opinion article written by Veselina Milanova and Peter Maas, Institute of Insurance at St.Gallen University.

All for one and one for all is the mechanics behind peer-to-peer insurances. Will they disrupt a centuries old industry?

Sharing everyday objects such as drills and cars, lending money to other people, offering small services like cooking dinner for strangers or teaching others some skills – the list of what people can do within the sharing economy is growing daily. A study of the European Commission records the accelerated growth of the sharing economy and quantifies its transactions in 2015 at 28 billion euros across Europe, up from 10 billion euros in 2013. The rise in both usage and transaction volume clearly shows that the sharing economy is here to stay.

Peer-to-peer insurance – old story told a new way?

One of the niches of the sharing economy directly touches the insurance industry. Sharing an insurance policy with other peers still seems awkward at first glance. However, it feels natural when given a second thought. The origin of insurance dates back to the ancient world. At that time groups of traders collected premiums to cover risks related to the shipping of their goods. This form of mutual aid has been formalized in insurance policies as known today. On the one hand stock listed insurance companies offer insurance protection, on the other hand mutual insurance companies are the legal form of such a consumer cooperative.

via www.insurancebusinessmag.com

#Insurtech - New report signals faster digital transformation of insurance

The insurance sector is increasingly turning to digital technology for automating insurance claims, analyzing big data for trends, and the way clients access services. A new report highlights how this disruption is creating opportunities for start-ups.

A review of trends in global ‘fintech’ has been undertaken by business analysts KPMG, focusing on market drivers and technologies. Investment in technologies for financial services is high, running to $8.4 billion on a quarter-by-quarter basis. One area where there has been considerable investment is with the insurance sector. This is highlighted in the KPMG review “The Pulse of Fintech Q2 2017.”

The application of technology in the insurance sector has been dubbed ‘insurtech’. In recent years there have been various trends to note, such as using artificial intelligence to select the insurance cases of the greatest value. The KPMG report identifies three important trends: the rise of digital only insurers; the use of comparison sites; and the application of artificial intelligence to help process insurance requests and claims.

The first trend noted in the report is that many insurance companies are transitioning to become digital only insurers, abandoning the traditional office and the concept of the client ‘dropping in’, and offering insurance services via apps. The use of apps is important for new challengers given the fall in television advertising which is necessitating a shift to mobile and online channels to advertise insurance services.

A number of new companies have entered the market, challenging established insurance providers. These challengers include digital only insurance providers Trov and Cuvva; the majority of these start-ups, up to 90 percent, are based in the U.S. These challengers tend to be niche providers, such as covering fraud or offering services for clients that carry greater financial risks.

A telling statistic is that some established insurance companies have been in business for over 300 years; whereas some insurtech firms have been in operation for less than 300 days. This is a clear signal for legacy firms to consider competing with start-ups within the digital realm.

via www.digitaljournal.com

Disruptive #InsurTech Pineapple raises R5,2m in funding - CFO South Africa

Pineapple (formerly know as Amyti), a Johannesburg-based InsurTech startup, has raised R5,2 million in seed funding.

Backers included Lireas Holdings, the strategic investment subsidiary of Hannover Re Group Africa.

The startup secured the funding it was selected to take part in a global challenge hosted by Hanover-Re in Johannesburg, Boston, Berlin and Dublin.

The company intends to use the funds to launch its platform within the end of the year. The funding is in return for a minority shareholding, will assist the startup in bringing its peer-to-peer insurance offering to market. 

Led by actuarial science graduate Matthew Elan Smith, Pineapple wants to revolutionise an insurance business model it sees as archaic and seeks to implement a transparent solution that removes the conflict of interest in insurance by returning all unused premium back to the hands of the consumer and allows users to connect with friends, family and trusted acquaintances to avoid fraud and scamsters.

Underwritten by Compass Insurance, Pineapple’s platform will compete with products from the likes of local insurers MyWay, Outsurance and Santam.

“Our true innovation of creating a decentralised peer-to-peer insurer is only as good as how well we can deliver that business model to our users. This drives us to be absolutely meticulous when it comes to our user experience in order to minimalize the friction of getting insured,” said Smith.

Pineapple will soon be available on both the Play and Apple app stores.

via cfo.co.za

Peter Thiel is backing Berlin 'InsurTech' startup Coya in a $10 million round

PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

LONDON – Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel has led a $10 million seed funding round into Berlin-based "InsurTech" startup Coya.

Thiel's fund Valar Ventures led the round, which also included funding from e.ventures, and La Famiglia, a European venture capital fund backed by entrepreneurs.

The investment is one of the biggest "seed funding" rounds in Germany. Seed funding is the early stage of investment meant to give entrepreneurs enough cash to build their idea. Coya was only founded last year.

Thiel, who is best known for cofounding PayPal and being an early investor in Facebook, has been an active investor in European fintech, or financial technology, over recent years. The billionaire was an early investor in UK money transfer business TransferWise and UK insurtech startup Brolly, as well as backing German fintech startups N26 and Deposit Solutions.

Dr. Peter Hagen, one of the founders of Coya, said: "Valar’s experience with PayPal, Transferwise, and N26 already set an example for the disruption of outdated business models in financial technology.

"This investment will allow Coya to further extend our team and build up an exceptional product for our customers."

Coya is planning to build a digital insurance provider and has applied to German's financial regulator BaFin for full authorization. It plans to launch to the public in 2018.

James Fitzgerald, a partner at Valar Ventures, said: "Coya is going to implement into every aspect of its customer journey the basic technologies that consumers have come to expect in their digital life – a frictionless, mobile and web first experience, powered by machine learning.

"In short, Coya is going to revolutionize the

via www.businessinsider.fr

10 Insurtechs for Superb Engagement - Insurance Thought Leadership

Photo Courtesy of Pexels

We have written about the key challenges that insurance carriers are facing. Winning insurtechs are those that tap into these challenges to accelerate digital transformation. In this post, we’ll focus on the first of seven different flavors of winners in fintech insurance: insurtechs that drive superb customer engagement.

via insurancethoughtleadership.com