Top10 Insurtech Influencer Representing Asia In The Global Insurance Innovation Community

An updated top 50 influencers to know in the world of Insurtech ranking is out and we are very happy to see Asia for the first time represented in the top 10, with George Kesselman out of Singapore taking a #10 spot.

You can find the links to influencer LinkedIn / Twitter together with other details on this popular InsurTech news website.

http://insurtechnews.com/influencer/

InsurTech Futures: Aviva teams with digital accelerator in multi-million pound deal

Majority of insurers are actively experimenting with innovation models these days. Interestingly, Aviva is taking an approach of investing in Venture Builder Founders Factory.

"Aviva has announced a partnership with Founders Factory, a multi-sector digital accelerator and incubator, co-founded by Brent Hoberman, Henry Lane Fox and Jim Meyerle.

Andrew Brem, chief digital officer, Aviva, said: "Insurance and financial services has been stuck in a bygone, analogue era when it comes to engaging with customers - we believe it's high time to bring the industry into the digital age, for the benefit of customers and insurers alike."

Read more on: Insurance Age

Loving the disruption? The five biggest opportunities and challenges for insurance in APAC

Roland Eckl, Chief Executive Munich Re Asia Pacific shared a blog post that highlights his thoughts on the topic of insurance and the changes that it will need to endure in the coming years to stay relevant:

• Create a better  customer experience: Come closer to the (end) customers and understand their needs, their fears and their emotions. What values – both tangible and non-tangible - do they want to protect? What are their anxieties? Insurers’ need to be at the digital edge to approach and interact with the customer while still be able to inspire trust and security.
• Generate earlier, faster and more interactive touchpoints with customers and subsequently entering the value chain at an earlier stage.
• Extend the boundaries of insurability based on a better understanding of specific risks due to big data and customer demand. Cover new risks which arise with digitalization, like cyber threats, reputational risks (loss of identities, confidential information and/or personal data).
• Create and re-develop new forms of insurance, for example on an on demand basis (coverage for short periods e.g. during travels or while using shared-economy items, like IPads, smartphones, Car-to-go, Drive Now etc.).
• Make insurance easy understandable and transparent!

Read full post on: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/loving-disruption-five-biggest-opportunities-challenges-roland-eckl

InsureTech Future - Future customer behavior and the IOT Opportunity

NextBank Singapore in collaboration with InsurTechAsia and Aviva are putting together an Insurtech themed event on 28th July 2016.

An interesting key topic:

Is IoT shaping the future of insurance? 
Customer behaviour driving the innovative insurance models

Opportunities & challenges for IoT in Health insurance 

Event details and RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/NextBankSingapore/events/227155347/

Insurance and Insurtech, Case For Collaboration

Author George Kesselman, co-founder of InsurTechAsia, presents a compelling case for enhance vs. disrupt model for Insurtech startups.

He outlines the value for corporate insurance leaders as:

1. Cost effective and low risk way to learn (startups bring focus on execution and rapid testing of digital concepts, while startups bare most of the structural risk);
2. Re-invigorate corporate culture (Bringing startups in proximity to staff through collaboration will encourage internal innovation);
3. Branding (Powerful message to the customers and shareholders, highlighting a forward looking nature of organization)

It goes on to give a few insightful tips in collaboration and makes for an insightful read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insurance-insurtech-case-collaboration-george-kesselman

Suncorp, Australian insurance giant invests $5m in Trov, adding another vote of confidence to the insurtech startup

Launching in Australia in coming weeks, according to the company's announcement, Trov just got another vote of confidence with a $5m investment from Australian insurance giant Suncorp.

"Swipe right if you want to insure your $2000 Apple MacBook Pro, and swipe left if you want to end its cover.

No, it's not Tinder for insurance, but a new technology platform created by fintech start-up, Trov, designed to give consumers insurance for their individual possessions whenever it's needed. It is also a company that now counts Suncorp Group as its investor, after the Australian insurance giant snapped up a $US5 million equity stake in the business.

Trov Protection is trying to snag market share, particularly among tech-savvy millennials, from incumbent insurers whose industry has remained largely unchanged in the past 100 years."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/innovation/suncorp-buys-equity-in-tech-startup-trov-20160425-goevfz.html

Swiss Re plans to launch a insurtech startup accelerator in India

Global reinsurer company Swiss Re plans to launch a fintech startup accelerator in July, touted to be the India's first to focus specifically on ventures within the insurance sector. "Approximately 25% of our revenue comes from emerging business markets. From an insurance tech perspective, India will be a very strong focus for us this year," said Jason Richards, head property and casual business management at Swiss Re.

The company plans on providing non-equity based grants to the selected startup and will evaluate early stage and venture based startups.

According to Alok Kumar, managing director at Swiss Reinsurance company, three core themes will define their selection of fintech players.

From Internet of Things based sensors and machine devices to systems of engagement, which include robo advisory systems such as artificial intelligence driven bots, and smart analytics, where deep learning will be leveraged for creating predictive systems, underwriting claims and fraud management.

Source: http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/startups/swiss-re-plans-to-launch-a-fintech-startup-accelerator/52035372

A community for Insurtech in Asia

This month we saw a launch of a preview for Insurtech Asia Website and Social media presence. Its states its purpose as a community that aims to bring together insurance innovators, industry practitioners and stakeholders, was launched earlier this month. It features articles, events and a forum.

How Can They Help?

Insurtech Asia believes in the power of community effort. Hence they are connecting the best, the most passionate and the brightest to be part of Insurtech Asia through regular discussions, meetups, events and workshops.

Insurtech Asia’s network gives visibility and access to a diverse crowd of investors, mentors and partners. This translates into exceptional opportunities for individuals, corporates and startups.

They provide support and consultancy to both investors and startups using the  frameworks tailored to each. Insurtech Asia is vested in the success of our community, as they believe success propagate success.

www.insurtechasia.com
Twitter: @insurtechasia

Tech accelerator Plug and Play launches insurance programme in US in partership with Munich Re

In partnership with Founding Partner Munich Re, Sompo Insurance, and USAA, Plug and Play is launching their newest program, Plug and Play Insurance in US. (http://plugandplaytechcenter.com/insurance/) 

This opens an interesting possibility that we might see a similar program in Asia soon with Plug and Play already running a media focused accelerator program in Singapore in partnership with SPH.

The US Innovation Platform is comprised of a network of industry leading reinsurers, insurance companies, brokers, and automakers built around a 12-week Silicon Valley based startup accelerator.
Plug and Play's model brings together a roundtable of complementary partners to guide the direction of the program and help decide which startups are accepted. Twice per year, participating corporate partners gather to determine the scope of the current round, and this will then be used to source 850-1000 startup applications looking to innovate in the insurance industry.

Source: https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/64237/tech-accelerator-plug-and-play-launches-insurance-programme