Insurtech Magazine July 2023

Helping people thrive in a connected world

In partnership with our clients, Assurant supports more than 300 million customers across the globe. We develop innovative products and services that support, protect and connect major consumer purchases. And we do this for some of the world’s most recognised brands, enabling us to anticipate the evolving needs of consumers, and continually deliver an enhanced customer experience.

Assurant: protecting and connecting consumer tech

Assurant is providing a range of protection products and services to help people thrive in a connected world, partnering with Vodafone to bring protection to life.

Today’s consumer has over 20 different wifi-enabled gadgets in their home, underlining the size of the gadget protection opportunity. Assurant – a leading global business services company that supports, protects and connects major consumer purchases, serving more than 300mn customers – is focusing on insurance products and services that empower consumers to protect those gadgets.

“We focus on everything that sits around the device,” Assurant UK Managing Director Chris Woolnough explains. One of Assurant’s brands is Pocket Geek,

cancel at any time. Protect Your Bubble provides valuable real-time insights for the company based around consumer behaviour, which it can use to hone its B2B propositions.

Culture vitally important to the way Assurant does business

Woolnough says that culture is particularly important to Assurant. “Our culture is pretty special and we call it the Assurant Way,” he says. “Within that, we have a set of values. Those values are common sense, common decency, uncommon thinking and uncommon results. Everything we do hooks back into those.”

This platform of trust has allowed it to enjoy a

INSURANCE SHEDS SOME SUN ON A WORLD IN CONSTANT MOTION

There’s been a heatwave here in the UK these last few weeks. Granted, by some standards, 30°C is pretty tepid – but us Brits are just not built for good weather!

Fittingly, this month’s issue of InsurTech Magazine is about our world in flux. Climate change is causing an unprecedented increase in freak weather events, like June’s wildfires in Canada. In return, insurers are turning to parametric insurance as a solution. We find out how this new approach is helping them to mitigate against a changing world.

Embedded insurance has the potential to completely overhaul the way we buy cover. Instead of being an end-destination that customers dread, insurance becomes a part of the journey instead. Tour operators, car rental companies and even clothing retailers are now able to offer protection, giving customers greater peace of mind.

And there is no better example of society in motion than the rise of crypto. This once-niche topic has become a mainstay of everyday conversation, and cryptocurrencies are beginning to secure institutional adoption. Anything worth having is worth insuring – so what’s the state of insurance for crypto assets themselves?

Enjoy this month’s edition!

ALEX CLERE

“Embedded insurance flips the traditional model of offering insurance, which requires consumers to actively seek out coverage”

UP FRONT

Business transformation Human elevation

We don’t just create real-world transformation. Driven by our purpose, we amplify the impact insurers have on the worldempowering employees and helping communities thrive.

Discover how we can make a difference together.

Genpact helping its clients to insure customers for life

Sameer Dewan, Genpact’s global business leader for insurance, discusses how the insurance industry is embracing a new age of data and lifetime customer journeys

Genpact is a global professional services firm delivering business transformation by putting digital and data to work to create competitive advantage.

It’s guided by its mission – the relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people. Genpact is focused on delivering ESG outcomes for both itself and its ecosystem of shareholders, stakeholders, employees, and the communities it operates in. As global business leader for insurance, Sameer Dewan partners with insurers, brokers, and MGAs to drive transformation, develop digital and analytics capabilities at a fast pace, and deliver business growth and efficiency.

State of flux from transactional to lifelong customer journeys

The role Genpact plays - as detailed in its report Insurance In The Age of Instinct - is to help the insurance industry tackle challenges such as changing consumer expectations, the explosion of data, and a fast-moving technology landscape. “How insurers respond today will lay the foundation for future resilience, and Genpact

is a key partner in helping organisations connect, predict, and adapt to become instinctive insurers and lifelong protectors in their customers’ lives,” adds Dewan.

Partnership with The Standard

The Standard provides insurance, retirement and investment products and services, with total assets under administration of USD$45.36 bn. Genpact creates value for them as an extension of The Standard’s team, creating growth with agile operating models that can scale up to meet demand and running operations to ensure they deliver value.

“We started by assessing the current state of operations and customer journeys and the choke points in each. This led to a redesigned operating model, with customer journeys at the heart of designing the new process - driving a better customer experience and growth. But transformation is not a ‘one and done’ project, we also created a transformation roadmap to consciously and continuously drive improvements, meeting The Standard’s goals of growth and profitability over the long term.” said Dewan.

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BIG PICTURE

State Farm baulks on wildfire risk California

Firefighters tackle a raging wildfire in a forest. State Farm, one of the largest providers of home insurance in California, has stopped writing new insurance policies in the state because of the high risk of wildfires.

A single wildfire in 2018 destroyed nearly 20,000 buildings and cost the insurance sector a reported US$18b.

State Farm’s decision will not affect existing policyholders – although many homeowners will be left scrambling to find an alternative when their policy is due for renewal. Stories are already emerging of residents facing a 1,000%+ increase in their premiums.

GUY FARLEY

The co-founder of pet insurance company ManyPets has green fingers, is a Tesla convert, and is allergic to cats and dogs!

Q. DESCRIBE YOUR JOURNEY SO FAR. HOW DID YOU GET TO THIS POINT?

EXECUTIVE BIO

GUY FARLEY

TITLE: CO-FOUNDER AND CTO

COMPANY: MANYPETS

INDUSTRY: INSURANCE

LOCATION: LONDON, UK

Guy Farley is the Co-Founder and CTO at pet insurance company

ManyPets. He has a background in software development and engineering, having previously helped build the first version of online bank First Direct. He is a lover of gardening and nature, as well as a recent convert to electric cars.

» I did an engineering degree and moved into software with my first role at ICL (now Fujitsu). My last role there was as the Software Development Manager, building the UK’s first online bank for First Direct. I then headed off to work abroad in India and then San Francisco – just in time to watch the tech bubble burst in 2001. After that, I returned to the UK and went through a couple of less successful but very instructional startup experiences, all in technology and financial services. [ManyPets Chief Executive and Co-Founder] Steven Mendel and I met while working for Close Brothers bank. We happened to be leaving at the same time and cooked up the idea for Bought By Many. In 2017, we pivoted the business into pure pet insurance, to create what is now ManyPets.

“Ironically, I am allergic to cats and dogs – much to my kids’

So we have a couple of guinea pigs, Choccy and Caramel”

Q. HOW MANY PETS DO YOU HAVE, AND WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES?

» Ironically, I am allergic to cats and dogs – much to my kids’ annoyance! So we have a couple of guinea pigs, Choccy and Caramel.

Q. WHO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY?

» As a teenager, I was a keen hockey keeper. Ian Taylor was the GB keeper when they won Olympic gold. I was also a keen climber and read about the adventures of Al Rouse, Chris Bonnington and Doug Scott.

Q. WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED?

» I guess it has to be to ‘throw my hat in the ring with Steven’ and start ManyPets.

Q. WHAT INSPIRES YOU IN INSURTECH OR INSURANCE TODAY?

» Like most engineers, I enjoy solving problems and building solutions. Insurance looks simple to customers, but, as readers of this will know, it is far from simple; it throws up interesting technical challenges everyday.

Q. WHAT’S ONE FINTECH YOU USE YOURSELF ON A REGULAR BASIS?

» Having worked at First Direct for a couple of years and built version one of online banking, I am a loyal customer for life! I think they are the original fintech.

Q. WHAT’S ONE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY THAT YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT?

» I have a Tesla. I’ve never really been into cars, and this is the first one I’ve ever

“Like most engineers, I enjoy solving problems and building solutions. Insurance looks simple but it is far from it”

actually wanted to drive rather than doze in the passenger seat.

Q. DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN THREE WORDS.

» Calm, relentless, terrible-at-small-talk!

Q. MANYPETS SECURED UNICORN STATUS IN 2021 AFTER ITS SERIES D ROUND. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN A REALLY VALIDATING EXPERIENCE PERSONALLY.

» It was obviously somewhat surreal but, as anyone that has been through fundraising knows, it takes months, so by the time it completes, it is more of a relief! It was, of course, a huge validation of the work that everyone involved had put into ManyPets over the previous decade. But it also ramps up the pressure and expectations; we still have lots of

work to do to make ManyPets a global force in pet health, so it’s straight back to the grindstone.

Q. CAN YOU TALK TO US ABOUT THE SORT OF BUSINESS YOU’VE BUILT AT MANYPETS? HOW IMPORTANT IS THE COMPANY CULTURE?

» There are lots and lots of pet owners and pet lovers at ManyPets, and, although that is part of our culture, much more important is how people treat and look after each other. I’ve heard numerous times that ManyPets is the most caring and inclusive company many of our people have ever worked for. There are always going to be tough times in business, especially during difficult economic periods, but a culture of caring goes a long way to getting through those.

Hot Weather Tips For Dogs

Dr. Kirsten’s Season Pass

WATCH NOW

Q. HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO DECIDE TO REBRAND AS MANYPETS, AND WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO FOUNDERS WHO THINK THEIR BRANDING NO LONGER REFLECTS THEIR VALUES?

» Firstly, I would say, we took years from first wanting to change the name to taking the plunge. We spent ages (and quite a bit of money) searching through a raft of names and ended up back at the one we first thought of. We had an equal number of very credible voices advising us not to do it as we did advising us to do it. In the end, it was just about going for it. My one piece of practical advice for anyone building a business now would be to register a URL that is not related to your business; we have policies.io for example, and use that for all the SaaS services your business relies on. So changing your trading name doesn’t require changes to a whole bunch of SaaS tools and integrations.

Q. IS THERE A PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT FROM THE LAST 12 MONTHS YOU’RE PARTICULARLY PROUD OF?

» I built a natural beehive by hollowing out a log and putting it in a tree; it now has a colony of wild bees in it.

Q. WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ AND WHEN?

» I am currently reading a book on how to create a forest garden. It’s amazing what small variety of edible plants we eat now. The next project is to plant a small forest garden for the bees to pollinate.

Q. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE NEXT FROM MANYPETS?

» I very much hope you will see ManyPets making a mark on the US pet insurance market and moving more and more from being a pure pet insurer to being a pet health company.

“We took years from first wanting to change the name of the business to taking the plunge”

JULIAN TEICKE

Driving innovation sustainably

InsurTech Digital looks back on the career of Julian Teicke, CEO and Co-Founder of leading European insurtech wefox

“The insurance industry is fundamentally broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up” –these are the words of Julian Teicke when founding wefox in 2015, said at its launch of a revolutionary German insurtech platform connecting insurance providers, brokers, and customers. It has since grown to become one of Europe’s largest insurtechs.

Curiosity leads to innovation

Born on 21 March 1989 in Berlin, Germany, Teicke’s journey to evolve the insurance industry through technical innovation stemmed from a childhood of curiosity, a drive to challenge conventions and explore new possibilities. This childhood passion led him to a journey in entrepreneurship, studying Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland – and it was here a fascination with the intersection of technology and sustainability was birthed.

Teicke quickly entered the world of business shortly after graduation, returning to Germany to help launch the UK division of Chocri – a Berlin-based company that allowed customers to order bespoke chocolate online.

This formative experience in the UK led him to join global ecommerce marketplace

Groupon’s UK division, before co-founding DeinDeal in 2011, an ecommerce platform for the Swiss market. Selling DeinDeal in 2015, Teicke had four years of experience acting as its COO.

At this point, with operational experience as well as an undisclosed sum from the sale of DeinDeal, Teicke launched EMPAUA, a service provider to start-up businesses. After receiving

investment from Salesforce, and similarly striking a partnership with the American cloud-based software company, Teicke founded what was then known as FinanceFox.

From FinanceFox to wefox

Initially an app that allowed consumers to store insurance details in one place, FinanceFox’s growth in Teicke’s native Germany was rapid – and Teicke soon obtained permissions to sell homegrown insurance products on the platform.

A joint vision between himself and his father, an insurance industry expert, the application created by Teicke tapped into the pain-points felt by consumers and brokers alike – streamlining insurance products and marking the beginning of what insurers today are striving for: consolidating insurance offers into one product offering.

Any trepidation for the success of FinanceFox was quickly vanquished by 2015, when it (much like Teicke’s EMPAUA) received US$5.5m in investment from SalesForce. Rebranding as wefox, the startup was growing into an established institution. Teicke said at the time: “Never underestimate the power of your ideas and the impact they can have on the world.”

He was right, in this case at least: by December 2019, wefox had generated the highest Series A funding of any European insurtech, raising US$110m in capital. However, this investment paled in comparison to just two years later, June 2021, when wefox generated US$650m in Series C funding, with lead investment from Target Global. An additional US$400m and a year later, wefox is worth US$4.5b.

Strong values in a cutthroat world

The intersection of technology and sustainability has never been forgotten by Teicke, despite the soaring success of wefox. Throughout the wefox journey, Teicke has maintained responsible business practices, integrating sustainable investment strategies to promote environmental awareness.

“Sustainable investing is not just about doing good; it’s about doing better,” says Teicke.

These aren’t just pretty words, either. In 2016, Teicke founded the wefox Foundation to support pressing environmental and social challenges, focusing on reforestation, biodiversity and climate action. With a mission statement believing “it’s time for businesses to take an active role in

founder explains the opportunity in digital insurance industry

creating a sustainable future”, Teicke feels the only meaningful, lasting impact to drive CSR and environmental change is done through partnerships.

Collective effort is key for Teicke in solving complex issues in the world. This inclusivity has led Teicke to forge partnerships with like-minded organisations and industry leaders worldwide to amplify the sustainability initiatives of each company partnered with the same ethos.

It is not only in the external image Teicke presents where his values are maintained, but also internally, too: the sense of unity and teamwork bred by the company inspired him to make every wefox employee a company shareholder following its 2021 record funding round.

A devotee to trade shows and workshops, Teicke uses his experience to part knowledge on to other startups and burgeoning entrepreneurs. “I think you can create without having anything. I have not had anything – I stopped taking money from my family at a very early age. I even sometimes think that financial freedom can destroy your drive to create anything.”

With creative independence and deeply held values at his core, Teicke has managed to achieve his growth aims while staying true to his aims of sustainably scaled business.

Receiving additional financial backing from J.P.Morgan and Barclays in 2023, wefox continues to develop into an established company, leading the way arguably as Europe’s leading insurtech.

“I sometimes think that financial freedom can destroy your drive to create anything”

Helping financial institutions build a purpose-driven and sustainable business

At TCS, we believe in creating sustainable growth for our stakeholders. Our innovative framework, digital capabilities, agile business model and ecosystem, are helping forward-looking financial institutes to build a purpose-driven business and provide financial, physical and mental wellbeing to their customers.

Tata Consultancy Services: Vinay Singhvi on Transformation

Vinay Singhvi, VP & Business Unit Head of Banking, Financial Services & Insurance, UK & Ireland at TCS, discusses transformation and change in the industry

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the leading IT and tech service providers the UK, as per the latest software and IT services ranking by Tech Market Review; and is the largest provider of IT services in the UK. “TCS is part of the Tata Group and we have been in the United Kingdom for over 50 years,” says Vinay Singhvi, Vice President and Business Head for UK and Ireland Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) unit for TCS. “We have the privileged position of being the purpose-led transformation for our customers, including vitality.”

As the world recovers from the pandemic, we are seeing businesses across industries - not just financial services - accelerating their use of technology. “Organisations are now looking to adapt new business models to build more customised products and services, as the needs of the end-customers are changing so rapidly.”

The segment will also continue to have a lot of competitive differentiation. “We are, for

example, seeing the rise of a lot of challenger banks,” says Singhvi, “especially over the past two or three years, as well as Insuretechs, Fintechs and innovative, creating the right competitive tension within the industry to make sure that the existing organisations are able to cater to their end-customers in much more predictable, efficient, agile and nimble ways.”

To summarise, Singhvi says, “I believe that all of this is leading to our customers focusing on understanding their own end-customers better. They are looking at hyper-personalisation in terms of what products and services they offer. They want to service them through seamless end-to-end digital journeys, and most importantly all of this depends upon making sure that the data and personal information that we have is kept secure.”

ORACLE CLOUD and the power of community in driving digital evolution

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

WRITTEN BY: MAYA DERRICK

Oracle’s Jürgen Kress

In conversation with Mobile Magazine, Director of Product Management Integration and Digital Assistant at Oracle Jürgen Kress shared insights into how Oracle Cloud leverages community to propel digital evolution. As a multinational computer technology corporation and the third-largest software company worldwide, Oracle is renowned for its comprehensive range of software products and services. The company offers Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), with a comprehensive set of services from infrastructure to platform and SaaS. This ranges from compute and storage, PaaS services like integration, BI, content, identity management, or a chatbot to services like ERP, HCM, CX, NetSuite, or industry solutions like the OPERA Hospitality Platform. With a mission to help people view data in new ways, discover insights, and unlock endless possibilities, Oracle remains at the top of its game. Named a Leader and Positioned Highest for Ability to Execute in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integration Platform as a Service Worldwide 2023, Oracle continues to shape the future of digital transformation.

The transformation journey

Kress, who has been with Oracle for over two decades, highlights the remarkable transformation in the IT industry. Oracle’s

explains how being named a leader in two Gartner Magic Quadrant reports will further propel the business and those it works with

Technically Inspiring

We use our specialist technical expertise, powerful technology, customised client solutions and global reach to deliver better results for the world of insurance.

Why Oracle Cloud has the ability to provide PaaS services

Vikas Sharma, Global Head of INSIS CoE at Charles Taylor, explains how the company harnesses Oracle’s OCI to enhance their internal operations and output

With a history spanning almost 140 years, Charles Taylor provides insurance solutions with a unique breadth, offering technical expertise and global reach alongside award-winning solutions. Their constant strive for excellence is propelled forward through using an array of Oracle Cloud systems that have been in place for the last 10 years – as Vikas Sharma, Global Head of INSIS CoE, explains.

‘A natural choice’

“It was a natural choice for us to try Oracle Cloud products, so we moved into OCI. One of the main benefits of OCI was providing PaaS services.” Comparing OCI Autonomous Database to a self-driving car, Sharma praised its ability to do its own patching –whether that be security patching, security detection, or identifying vulnerabilities. And there’s a financial benefit, as well.

Fast delivery

“I always use this phrase: time is money,” says Sharma.

“The first and foremost benefit that we get is that it helps us to deliver our solution in fast time-to-market.

“The time for server building and infrastructure building – which used to take many days, sometimes many months – has reduced a lot. And that eventually reduces a lot of our cost, benefitting our customers.”

Security and safeguarding data

With data protection and security paramount, Sharma adds that Oracle’s services, when used together, completely safeguard information at any and all levels. “We use Oracle Cloud Guard, which is one of the products that comes from OCI, to secure at the tenant-level. Then we utilise other services from OCI, like DataSafe, specifically, to find out any kind of vulnerabilities at the database level.

“All our servers are in a private subnet so they are completely secured. And we utilise some of the services security list type of services, rules services from OCI, to secure our applications.”

integration capabilities serve as an onramp to the broader IaaS platform.

According to Kress: “OCI is a second-generation cloud representing a fundamental re-architecture of the conventional public cloud. While first-generation clouds were built on decade-old technology, Oracle’s Cloud is specifically architected for the enterprise. It was built in a microservice architecture, which gives us a competitive advantage. We use that difference to shift all workloads for our customers to the cloud – existing workloads, new cloud-native workloads – and we are continually releasing new capabilities such as integration and AI

“Oracle now boasts the fastest core network of global data centres, with 42 regions currently available and nine more in the pipeline”

JÜRGEN KRESS DIRECTOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION AND DIGITAL ASSISTANT, ORACLE CLOUD

services including Digital Assistant, our secure, enterprise chatbot.”

By utilising OCI Application Integration (OIC), customers gain access to a wide array of services, ranging from compute and storage, to identity management, content management, modern data platform, and application development. The seamless integration of various applications, both Oracle and third-party, enables customers to enhance their operational efficiency and unlock the full potential of Oracle’s infrastructure. Prebuilt adapters and integrations accelerate delivery and minimise upgrade risks. Unified observability simplifies hybrid and multi-cloud operations.

JÜRGEN KRESS

TITLE: DIRECTOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION AND DIGITAL ASSISTANT

COMPANY: ORACLE CLOUD

EXECUTIVE BIO

An expert in the Oracle Cloud Platform Jürgen Kress is part of product management team and responsible for Oracle’s Integration & Digital Assistant partner business & the customer success program. He is the founder of the Oracle Integration & Developer Partner Communities and the global Oracle Partner Advisory Councils. These PaaS Partner Communities are home to over 10,000 members internationally as Oracle’s most active and successful communities. Which Jürgen manages with monthly newsletters, webcasts, online trainings and conferences. He hosts the Partner Community Forums, Summer Camps and Bootcamps where hundreds of attendees receive product updates, roadmap insights, and hands-on training. He graduated from Berufsakademie Stuttgart and holds a master’s degree from University of Brasilia. As an author he published several books and is an active social contributor via Twitter, LinkedIn, discussion forums, online communities, slack and blogs.

Oracle and KNEX Empower Clients with Fusion Applications for Real-World Impact

KNEX is a seasoned team of elite Oracle experts curated by founder Basheer Khan, a globally recognised Oracle authority.

Since 2013, we’ve delivered proven solutions built on broad industry understanding.

Beyond integrating systems, we elevate success, leveraging Fusion extensions to coordinate harmony within the organisations.

KNEX: Unlock the full potential of your Fusion Applications

KNEX Technology is revolutionising Fusion Applications implementations with innovative extensions that expand functionality across industries

Being a member of the Fusion Inner circle, and an early adopter, Basheer Khan gained deep expertise in Fusion Applications. Recognising this, Oracle engaged Khan in 2010 to install Fusion Applications for early adopter companies. This experience led Khan to envision a consulting firm that not only implemented Fusion Applications but also helped clients optimise their investments. With this idea in mind, Khan founded KNEX Technology in 2013 with the goal of implementing cloud applications, integrating them with other systems, and extending their functionality to bridge gaps.

In 2005, Oracle recognised Khan as an Oracle ACE Director, part of their ACE Program that recognises individuals who are experts in their respective fields. In 2012, KNEX’s CTO, Gustavo Gonzalez was awarded the same recognition. This milestone achievement makes KNEX the only organisation with two of the three ACE Directors in the world who specialise in Fusion Applications.

Providing positive change – together Oracle and KNEX have collaborated on many amazing projects. One of the most poignant is implementing Fusion Applications across 14 countries, in just 16 weeks. “I think this is a record,” Khan shares. “We don’t know of any other implementation for such a broad region in such a short time.

“We’ve also done some impactful projects when it comes to improving the productivity of our clients. One of our clients in the financial services sector had their team spending a considerable amount of time capturing data from different banks. We were able to automate that using Oracle Integration Cloud.”

To breathe life into the concept of positive change, our favourite collaboration is with non-profit organisations. KNEX works hand-inhand to help non-profits afford and successfully uptake Oracle Fusion Applications, simplifying their dayto-day operations and enabling them to focus on their missions to provide positive change to the world.

Khan concludes: “At KNEX, we simplify the complex.”

Speaking about OIC’s industry recognition, Kress explained: “Congratulations to all the customers, partners, and the whole community. It was a big team effort including product management, development, sales, and marketing. Oracle is a SaaS market leader with solutions spanning ERP, CM, CX, and industry solutions. Customers need to connect their applications, including Oracle SaaS, with their applications, data, and messaging services in the cloud, between different clouds, and on-premises.”

The power of community

A significant aspect of Oracle’s success lies in the vibrant and active community it has cultivated. With more than 10,000 community members comprising

customers, partners, and employees, Oracle collaborates, engages, supports, and trains this community. The community model extends to both partners and customers, offering sales and marketing enablement information, newsletters, webcasts, and success stories.

Comms channels ‘vital’

The constant communication channels, such as newsletters, webcasts, blogs, instant messaging, and social media, enable the sharing of product information, success stories, and valuable feedback to continually improve the OCI Application Integration service.

Oracle recognises the crucial role played by partners in implementing successful

“We are thankful for an excellent team, including leadership with an in-depth understanding, and a track record of success in the integration market”

JÜRGEN KRESS DIRECTOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION AND DIGITAL ASSISTANT, ORACLE CLOUD

FlexDeploy DevOps Platform for Oracle Cloud Applications

and Infrastructure

Streamline and accelerate delivery of your Oracle Cloud services like ERP, HCM, Integration, and Analytics by automating manual tasks, reducing the risk of failure, and providing traceability and auditability of changes.

Learn how to achieve significant benefits by streamlining the entire deployment process

FlexDeploy DevOps Platform for Oracle Cloud

Flexagon’s DevOps platform, FlexDeploy, helps customers automate their processes when software development and delivery are generally complex. “We bring software to the table in FlexDeploy to embed automation and governance into their processes and make sure there’s visibility to change,” Flexagon’s CEO and Co-Founder Dan Goerdt says.

Removing complexity

Through its partnership with Oracle and its Oracle Cloud systems, FlexDeploy optimizes services for ease of customer use. As an Oracle partner, Flexagon leverages the likes of development environments and demo environments, accessing resources within Oracle’s product management and marketing to optimise FlexDeploy’s support for Oracle Cloud Integration and Applications.

Partnership in action

Heathrow Airport had a huge transformation and is adopting Oracle Cloud, Oracle Cloud Applications, Oracle Integration and APEX. Capgemini, as an Oracle partner and a

Flexagon partner, was able to deliver this transformation successfully. “The impact of the partnership has been tremendous,” Goerdt remarks. “Customers around the globe get the value of FlexDeploy’s expansive out-of-the-box capability for Oracle Cloud. Pairing the FlexDeploy DevOps platform with the Oracle partnership has helped a lot of customers move faster with quality while managing cost and risk. Everybody wins. It’s a neat dynamic to help solve these joint customer challenges in different ways.”

A bright future

Although proud of what Flexagon has achieved since its inception and how partnering with Oracle has enabled the company to reach a wider customer base, Goerdt has his sights set on a bright future in partnership with Oracle. “Oracle continues to crank out new services and extend their existing services. We’re tightly aligned with them so we can continue to enhance FlexDeploy to support the evolution of Oracle Cloud.”

LEARN MORE

projects. The integration partner ecosystem consists of various types of partners, including system integrators, global system integrators, local partners, and independent software vendors (ISVs). To support partners, Oracle provides comprehensive programs that encompass sales, marketing, and enablement information, joint campaigns, free training, and certification. Notable partnerships include innovative regional system integrators, global system integrators undertaking large international projects,

33 hands-on trainings with 2465 attendees in fiscal year 2022

33 webcasts with 7969 attendees in fiscal year 2022

Oracle Cloud and the power of community in driving digital evolution

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and ISVs leveraging pre-built integrations to connect their solutions to the Oracle SaaS ecosystem.

“Partners are absolutely key to us,” Kress says “Of the top 10 customer projects, eight of them have been successfully implemented by partners. We’re thankful for our excellent global partnerships. The integration partner ecosystem includes different types of partners from system integrators, global system integrators, and local partners, to independent software vendors.

“For partners, we offer a whole program including sales, marketing, and enablement information such as sales kits with customer presentations, sales positioning, joint campaigns to generate leads, and opportunities for free training and certification. All of that is put together in a community model to communicate regularly via newsletters and webcasts.”

To highlight some of the success factors, trained and certified partners deliver and replicate successful customer projects. Every year, Oracle offers 20 free training

sessions to its partners. In these three-day workshops, up to 200 people learn about the product in live virtual classes, which has resulted in more than 6,000 certified Oracle Application Integration experts since 2020.

Kress explains, “We have small and innovative partners like KNEX, which are among the first movers to connect and extend Oracle SaaS with OIC. They customised Oracle SaaS to run a winery, replicated this customer success, and now offer an industry solution. We work with all Global System Integrators (GSI’s) who deploy international projects. For example, Capgemini and the Heathrow Airport project, Infosys, who presented one of their projects at our last customer success webcast, or Accenture with more than 500 experts. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) such as Charles Taylor, which offers insurance solutions, leverage OIC to connect with Oracle SaaS. With OIC, Charles Taylor gets access to the Oracle SaaS installed base and customers benefit from tailored industry solutions.”

“Partners such as Flexagon, which offers a DevOps solution, FlexDeploy, for Oracle Cloud infrastructure services. FlexDeploy is a DevOps and automation platform that enables fast and efficient packaging, testing, and development of code and configurations. It’s a complimentary tool that was initially developed on Oracle SOA Suite and now supports the latest OCI architecture. Available through the Oracle Marketplace, FlexDeploy is available to any OCI customer.” Asked about OIC’s global partner model, Kress shared, “To summarise our partner strategy, the secret is that we train and certify partners to deliver successful projects and replicate their

JÜRGEN KRESS DIRECTOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION AND DIGITAL ASSISTANT, ORACLE CLOUD

“We are continually releasing new capabilities”

best practices. The community model is a consistent, executable, and scalable model.”

He adds: “For customers and prospects, we established a similar program that includes a quarterly newsletter, quarterly product webcast, customer summits, and success stories. The product webcast provides customers with the latest release details with demonstrations of new features and roadmap details. Prospects learn from successful customer implementations in regional success webcasts. A great example is the London Heathrow Airport reference implemented by Capgemini.

“Overall, we are thankful for an excellent team, including leadership with an in-depth understanding, and a track record of success in the integration market. It’s always a team effort, and we would like to thank and congratulate our customers, employees, partners, and the ACE community that made it possible.”

Driving future development

Oracle aims to expand its customer base and further develop its cloud offerings. “OCI is a complete cloud infrastructure platform suitable for every workload, offering all the necessary services to migrate, build, and run both existing and new enterprise workloads including cloud-native applications and modern data platforms,” Kress details.

“Oracle now boasts the fastest core network of global data centres, with more than 42 regions currently available and nine more in the pipeline. Oracle also provides 20 free tier services, with no time limitations, including compute and storage, autonomous databases, and APEX for lowcode development.”

The company recognises that continued growth and development depend on customers utilising its products and actively contributing to Oracle’s service offerings. Ongoing communication with customers and partners helps prioritise bi-monthly releases and drive longer-term strategy.

AI and the future of cloud services

Kress highlights the immense potential of AI as the next major revolution in the IT industry. AI services rely heavily on data models and the ability to expose trusted enterprise data to AI systems. By connecting

“Partners are absolutely key to us”

JÜRGEN KRESS DIRECTOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION AND DIGITAL ASSISTANT, ORACLE CLOUD

transactional application data with AI capabilities, organisations can optimise automated processes and empower knowledge workers to make timely, datadriven decisions that drive growth. Cloud services are becoming smarter, more autonomous, and interconnected, leveraging the power of connected data and AI to deliver superior predictions and insights.

Through a combination of robust infrastructure, integration capabilities, and a thriving community, Oracle Cloud is driving digital evolution in the industry. Recognised as a leader in iPaaS, Oracle’s commitment

to empowering customers, fostering partnerships, and embracing emerging technologies positions it at the forefront of innovation.

Overall, Oracle’s community-driven approach, coupled with its commitment to partner success and technological innovation, positions the company at the forefront of digital transformation and enables it to provide comprehensive cloud solutions to its customers.

The Portfolio

THE RISE OF EMBEDDED INSURANCE

As embedded insurance becomes a hot topic in the insurance industry, we look at its growth rate so far, what holds it back and its future potential

WRITTEN BY: LOUIS THOMPSETT

Though embedded insurance may not appear to consumers as a flashy new means of purchasing coverage, it’s not designed to be. In fact, the reason embedded insurance has become such a hot topic as a means of product distribution for insurers is due to its seamless integration with other associated insurance offerings, addressing both primary purchase and related insurance needs in one transaction.

Enabling customers to have a more comprehensive and holistic solution, embedded insurance flips the traditional model of offering insurance products, which requires consumers to actively seek coverage for standalone products. Effectively, it eliminates the need for customers to go through additional steps or fill out complex forms to obtain insurance.

Embedded insurance allows insurers to tap into new customer segments and leverage existing distribution channels of partner companies, all while gathering valuable data from customer transactions to create more personalised underwriting and pricing models. Although this paints a rosy picture for insurers, there are complex regulatory requirements to consider, giving some legacy institutions cold feet over offering packaged insurance products –and ensuring embedded products meet the licensing needs of all products in a single package is one consideration. Add to that the need for complex compensation algorithms for each embedded offering, compliant advertisement licensing, rebate cognizance and intellectual property law adherence, and it becomes clear that completely remodelling legacy models may be a pricey risk for established insurers.

DAN BRATSHPIS CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, INSHUR

This is where insurtechs have taken up the mantle, offering insurers integrated solutions that can make embedded insurance a part of their offering. But, do the benefits of embedded insurance outweigh the risks for insurers? We look at use cases of embedded insurance and ask: will it become a ‘must’ for insurers in the future?

Is embedded insurance the answer?

For Dan Bratshpis, CEO and Co-Founder of INSHUR, “embedding insurance solutions is the answer to building efficient insurance products and personalised relationships with both the platforms and their customers”. While partnering with insurtechs may prove costly, Bratshpis feels the extensive budgets insurers spend on advertising “to assert their presence in key areas of everyday life – such as car, life, travel, personal and professional liability insurance” – doesn’t help them “deliver the right product for these workers when relying on standard customer data such as gender and location in the underwriting process”.

He adds: “With embedded insurance, there are many mutual benefits for workers, insurers and platforms, but it’s the symbiosis

“Embedding insurance solutions is the answer to building efficient insurance products and personalised relationships with both the platforms and their customers”

FintechOS: A New Way Forward

of these three where we see the magic in creating a superior customer experience coupled with real underwriting advantages to develop customised products, while at the same time driving down acquisition costs. The proliferation of the on-demand workforce means that the symbiotic relationship between platforms, insurtechs and customers has become evermore paramount, especially as insurtechs have the ability to underwrite policies more accurately.”

However, the CTO at Swan, Mathieu Breton, notes that despite nurturing a strong relationship between insurtechs, insurers and customers, the proliferation of embedded insurance will further highlight the issue of the ‘Russian doll’ effect. This is where an insurtech company “embeds finance and then goes on to offer its own

embedded insurance offering”. As such, he explains that this “is where the lines blur –particularly for regulation – and this is where risk education for both the companies and end consumers becomes important”.

The fintech relationship status

Although complex regulatory requirements may slow the growth of embedded insurance products hitting the market en masse, it has done little to deter insurtechs and insurers from striving to achieve proliferation in the long run. In fact, a report by InsTech London found that the embedded insurance market could grow to US$722bn in gross written premiums by 2030, around 600% more than the size that it is today.

Embedded insurance providers continue to onboard fintech solutions before going

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on to offer their own platforms to insurers and consumers. But, according to Mariana Henriques, Product Marketing Director, Insurance at FintechOS, legacy insurers are lagging in their relationship with fintechs and deployment of financial technology.

She notes: “While some financial services have seen flash-in-the-pan innovations and have found success in consumer trends, insurance hasn’t capitalised on financial technology in the same way. One of the main challenges for insurers has been the complexity of their business models, which adds to the complexities of deploying and using the technologies themselves.”

While complex business models may slow the uptake of fintech usage among legacy insurers, Henriques believes companies will eventually “diversify the types of insurance products they offer through embedded insurance, as awareness of the benefits of embedded insurance continues to grow among consumers”.

Insurance diversification

According to Henriques, the growing awareness of consumer pet insurance has

already led to an insurer response, with embedded pet insurance becoming one of the largest segments in the sector. Breton explains how “many pet insurance tools are now providing cards, with their own brand, letting pet parents pay for emergency operations up-front, removing the added stress of putting cash down and waiting to be reimbursed – this service is only possible with embedded finance.”

Embedded pet insurance is not the only segment of embedded insurance high on the growth chart, as the Executive Director of Toyota Insurance Services Europe, John Laing explains: “One of the most exciting innovations in embedded insurance is insurance sold as part of a vehicle rental or purchase – whether physically at a dealership, for example, or online.”

Laing feels that embedded motor insurance is set to grow for many reasons. “As customers move from ‘ownership’ to ‘usership’, their expectations are starting to change – with an increasing focus on ‘ease of use’ and ‘value’ that make embedded insurance products very appealing.

“There is also a shift from selling, financing and insuring a single car to providing a combined service based around an insured, funded vehicle, instead. In addition, passenger vehicles that are designed at the outset to have insurance integrated become very appealing when supported by deeper and more varied data streams.”

The future of embedded insurance

With pet and motor embedded insurance firmly on the rise, the proliferation of embedded insurance services across all industries, and at more insurance firms, look set to follow suit. As Henriques notes: “Technology will play a key role in demystifying some of the complexity around

“While some financial services have found success in consumer trends, insurance hasn’t capitalised on financial technology in the same way”

MARIANA HENRIQUES PRODUCT MARKETING DIRECTOR, INSURANCE, FINTECHOS

How will embedded insurance transform parametrics?

As embedded insurance expands into different industries, we take a look at how it could transform parametric insurance. For Mark Hara, US CEO of FloodFlash, embedded insurance could help revolutionise parametrics coverage in the mortgages and loan space.

“If you’re a lender and want to support businesses in coastal communities but cannot reconcile the flood risk, it makes sense to embed a parametric insurance product that pays for the loan repayments while the business recovers from a flood. We’re at the beginning of the journey for this kind of thinking – but the potential is massive.”

The potential of embedded insurance in parametrics could be fully unlocked as parametrics becomes universally understood, according to the Head of Commercial at Floodbase, Peter Lacovara, who says embedded solutions are already “the only way to sell parametrics with any meaningful scale”.

He adds: “The growth of the broader parametric market was stunted by the difficulty of explaining parametrics. Simple programmes, more akin to ‘warranties’ than insurance, might see the greatest takeup in the near-term in the embedded space. As parametrics become more universally known and understood, we may see the vast majority of parametric capacity committed on an embedded basis.”

“In the future, we will see more industries adopting embedded insurance models as consumers become increasingly accustomed to personalised and on-demand services”

MEERI SAVOLAINEN CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, INZMO

underwriting through AI and chatbots, improving the overall retail experience. The market is predominantly focused on consumer goods, but in the future, embedded insurance offerings could even extend to business processes, such as logistics and warehousing.”

Co-Founder and CEO of INZMO Meeri Savolainen echoes Henriques’ belief in similar embedded insurance offerings being used across an increasing variety of industries: “In the future, we will see more industries adopting embedded insurance models as consumers become increasingly

accustomed to personalised and on-demand services. This, in turn, will create opportunities for insurtechs to partner with traditional insurance providers and to further disrupt the market by offering innovative, tailored insurance solutions.”

So, although embedded insurance’s growth may be stunted by regulations, these roadblocks will only serve to slow embedded insurance down as it continues to penetrate new industries, offering an integrated, user-friendly approach to providing insurance products in an increasing number of industries.

Adam Elman Head of Sustainability EMEA Google

Musidora Jorgensen Chief Sustainability Officer Microsoft

Andrew New Chief Executive Officer NHS Supply Chain

Susan Spence VP, Sourcing Procurement & Accounts FedEx VP,

Geraint John VP, Interos Resilience Lab Interos

Kate Rosenshine Director - Global Azure Technology Sales Microsoft

Aravind Narayan Global Director - Sales Strategy & Execution Refinitiv (LSEG)

Sam Clarke Chief Vehicle Officer Gridserve

PREPARING INSURANCE FOR THE FUTURE AUTONOMOUS

INSURANCE FUTURE OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE

PRODUCED BY: JACK MITCHELL

Chris Moore, Head of the Apollo ibott 1971 syndicate, is possibly an anomaly within the world of insurance. Few kids dream of growing up into a life of underwriting, but Moore says he knew he wanted to get into insurance since going off to university.

“I studied mathematics at Bath University,” he tells us. “A lot of people talk about falling into insurance or just somehow ending up in insurance; I may be one of those that actually wanted to be in insurance. That's something I'm quite proud of.”

After graduating from university, Moore pursued a career as a broker in London, spending two years at Catlin before joining Apollo a decade ago. It’s no surprise that he has stayed: the company sits at the vanguard of new technologies, creating insurance solutions for emerging businesses that will be household names in a few years’ time.

“I love insurance,” Moore effuses. “We should be advertising the amazing things about the insurance industry and trying to recruit the freshest talent from university.”

One of Apollo ibott 1971’s biggest areas of focus is autonomous vehicles (AVs). Certainly, it has the potential to increase convenience for consumers and unlock new opportunities for mobility in our daily lives. But AV technology also has the potential to reshape the insurance industry, and insurers must hop on board early to ensure they’re fully prepared.

With autonomous vehicles set to disrupt the future of mobility, Apollo ibott 1971’s Chris Moore talks about the implications for the insurance industry

Moore believes that mistrust in autonomous vehicles is often misplaced, especially given most people are happy to fly in a plane or travel on a ferry while it’s in autopilot mode. “We trust autonomy in so many areas of our lives, including aviation and marine, but as soon as you start talking about autonomous vehicles people recoil,” he says.

In part, this is informed by distant memories of sci-fi catastrophe movies. It’s also a result of headline reporting, where a single AV crash will make front-page news but a million safe AV rides will not. “I would

absolutely get into an autonomous vehicle,” Moore says. “I might even feel a lot safer in it.”

What is the size of the AV market opportunity?

According to McKinsey, autonomous driving could create revenues of US$300-400bn by 2035. Most new cars already feature some sort of autonomous technology, allowing drivers to maintain a constant speed or helping to switch between lanes, usually on highway or motorway networks. In future, this technology will enable

complete automation of vehicles – starting with industrial applications like agricultural vehicles and culminating in a full robotaxi experience that could make inter-city travel more comfortable and affordable – something that Chris Moore believes is the toughest mountain to climb for AV technology, not least because autonomous systems still struggle to predict irrational human behaviour, particularly in a lowspeed, urban setting.

“I think the size of the opportunity is huge, both in the AV industry itself but also in terms of the insurance opportunity that's

CHRIS MOORE

TITLE: HEAD OF APOLLO IBOTT 1971

INDUSTRY: INSURANCE

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM

EXECUTIVE BIO

Chris has been with Apollo since 2013 and was instrumental in the setup of ibott. With over a decade of experience with casualty and innovation, which he has a passion for, Chris believes in insurance products being an enabler for new progressive business models such as the sharing economy. He is FCII and CRIS qualified, as well as sitting on the Lloyd’s innovation panel and the Lloyd’s Market Association Committee for both US and International Casualty.

linked to that. When you think about the amount of disruption that autonomy can cause to almost all industries, it's really staggering.”

Broader adoption of AV technology will really depend on regulatory approval. There are already autonomous rideshare pilots happening in multiple US states, chief amongst which are probably California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada. The usual first-movers will predictably emerge, keen to attract inward investment, but while regulators remain to be convinced about issues such as safety and scalability, there are things that insurers can do today – such as prepare their businesses to analyse and price AV risk – that will set them up for an autonomous future.

Edge Case Insurance launches to make autonomy safer

Edge Case Insurance is proud to be exploring a partnership with Apollo ibott to provide risk-informed underwriting and insurance that supports safer AVs for everyone.

Learn more

Failing to do so could have dire business consequences. Insurers risk angering and alienating OEMs if they fail to recognise the potential around AV, provoking them into offering their own in-house insurance products in much the same way that Elon Musk has done at Tesla. After all, autonomous driving will only be a $300400m opportunity if insurers position themselves to take advantage of it.

AV technology will make our roads safer Summarising the nature of the opportunity that exists around autonomous vehicles, Moore believes it will take the worst elements of human behaviour – the fact that we are prone to error, are not very good at concentrating over long distances, and tend to panic in high-pressure situations such as near-crashes or losses of control – and replace it with the best attributes of automation. This will mean that, potentially, autonomous vehicles become safer than human-driven cars.

How much safer? In the US, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that human drivers are involved in a fatal collision 1.33 times every 100m miles travelled – that’s a 0.00000133% probability of fatality, or

CHRIS MOORE HEAD OF APOLLO IBOTT 1971

“A lot of people talk about falling into insurance or just somehow ending up in insurance; I may be one of the few that actually wanted to be in insurance”

conversely, a 99.99999867% safety rate. Autonomous vehicles will have to be better than that to be accepted as a ‘safer’ technology – but thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, that’s plausible.

“It’s clear that autonomous vehicles lead to a huge reduction in the frequency of loss and the frequency of accidents, which is something we can all be supportive of,” Moore says. “You will also see a reduction in the severity of injury. Autonomous vehicles will react quicker; they have quicker braking times and quicker response times so, if an accident cannot be avoided, you'd like to think that collision would be at a lower speed.”

Despite the road safety improvements, that won’t necessarily mean that insurers are better protected against claims. In fact, the severity of insurance loss could be a lot higher. This is because – in the same way that only AV crashes, and not successful AV journeys, make the headlines – the rare occasion when AV technology still causes injury or death will be highly exposed to so-called ‘nuclear verdicts’, where the AV operator is taken to court and sympathetic jurors award damages in excess of $10m. It often falls on the operator’s insurer to cover those damages. Take an already precarious situation when it comes to nuclear verdicts, and add in the supposition that these technologies are safe to use, and it becomes clear why this problem will only get worse in future.

Chris Moore says: “It will be a lot harder to defend autonomous vehicle claims because of that big nuclear verdict approach that plaintiffs might take. Where a standard human fleet operation might only buy $5m or $10m of auto liability in the United States, I think you'll probably see autonomous

vehicles companies buy multiples of that in terms of limits of liability. It's our obligation as insurance partners to really make sure we are very proactive on the claims and defence work that we do with our clients to stop that becoming prevalent, and stop that becoming part of the industry.”

Do insurers have enough data to price AV risk?

One of the issues that could burn insurers is the lack of historical data. Today, insurers have 50 or 60 years’ worth of reliable data behind them to help understand auto insurance risk – but with autonomous vehicles being an entirely new technology, will they struggle to understand the level of risk they’re underwriting? Not necessarily, Moore explains, because many AVs will be so connected that insurers can benefit from real-time driving data.

It will be a change that forces the insurance industry into a complete overhaul. The average American driver spends just 55 minutes a day behind the wheel – that’s about 96% of the time that your car is parked in your garage or on your driveway. As new business models emerge from the AV revolution – including autonomous rideshares, car subscription services and flexible rentals – drivers will question the need to even ‘own’ a car at all.

“I think all insurance ultimately will shift from personal lines to commercial lines. The future of insurance is always going to be B2B”

CHRIS MOORE HEAD OF APOLLO IBOTT 1971

This will ultimately benefit the consumer. After all, ‘driving’ – or, to express it more accurately, being driven – will remain accessible but could become more affordable, especially if you’re only paying for what you use. But it will lead to a transformational shift within the auto industry. In the long term, ownership will transition away from consumers and into the hands of OEMs or leasing companies, who will offer autonomous vehicles to the public according to the extent of demand. This could be on a daily, hourly, or even mile-by-mile basis.

In turn, it will shift the insurance relationship from a largely B2C transaction into one that primarily exists as B2C. “I think all insurance ultimately will shift from personal lines to commercial lines,” Moore says. “The future of insurance is always going to be B2B.” He likens it to sharing economies such as Uber or Airbnb. They have embraced embedded finance and will embrace embedded insurance, too; if consumers had to arrange insurance separately when using these platforms, they would simply not bother using them at all.

Because of this shift, the rise of automated vehicles will also force insurers to be much more transparent about their pricing. “I think insurers need to remove this mystical curtain that we've sat behind. When a large commercial entity gets a quote, the insurer hides behind this curtain and then comes back with a price. They never tell you what that price is driven by.

“Now, we're in this digital environment where our biggest customers have arguably as much data as we do about what their risk looks like. Businesses are very educated buyers.

“I think that's where insurers need to be a lot more transparent to explain how they’re looking at risk and what’s driving

the price. And if an insurer’s assumptions are conservative, they might need to reduce that price over time. In that respect, you create this relationship that's far more fluid. Rather than insurers just ingesting data and spitting out a price, it becomes a two-way process.”

Will automation make human drivers redundant?

When it comes to automation, one of the oft-raised debates is about the continuing role of human labour. Will we all still have jobs when automation becomes ubiquitous, or will we need some sort of universal

payments to help those displaced by robots?

The most measured response usually involves humans and robots coexisting peacefully together in the same labour market. There is room for both. Indeed, Chris Moore says that there will still be a place for lorry drivers, for example, even if long-distance haulage is automated.

In the aforementioned examples of aviation and marine, there are still pilots monitoring the autopilot and conducting takeoffs and landings manually; a cruise ship or ferry can navigate huge swathes of ocean under automation, but it’s still brought into

dock by a combination of the vessel’s own captain and a local pilot who knows the idiosyncrasies of each port. There will be a continued interplay between automation and human supervision.

“As autonomous technology grows and becomes more robust, you'll probably need less human interaction. But that human interaction will take different forms,” Moore says. “People think there's going to be a mass layoff of people because you don't need drivers anymore. You still need these employees. It will just be a different type of job.

“There’s been plenty of studies into the impact of automation on human labour. A lot of it isn’t as impactful as you think”

CHRIS MOORE HEAD OF APOLLO IBOTT 1971

“There's been plenty of studies into the impact of automation on human labour. A lot of it isn't as impactful as you think. It's transferring that job so that, instead of sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle – which means you're away from your family quite often – now you’re going to be in a maintenance workshop because these vehicles have a different type of utilisation and they get used much more.

“Autonomous vehicles can drive throughout the day, throughout the night. There's no limitations on the times they can be driven, because that's stipulated by humans and how long they can keep their attention span."

Moore continues: “Instead, humans are working on maintenance or working in a control centre to make sure the vehicles operate smoothly – and what a much nicer form of employment that is.”

How is Apollo ibott 1971 preparing for an AV future?

One of the ways that Apollo ibott 1971 is preparing for an automated future is through its partnership with US-based risk management research company Edge Case. “They are an autonomous vehicle-focused MGA,” Moore explains. “What they're trying to do is bridge the gap between the huge amounts of technical expertise and engineering that sits within the autonomous vehicle companies, and then the expertise that exists in the insurance world that is trying to build these insurance solutions.

“Bridging that gap helps build trust and makes sure that any insurance solutions are fit for purpose. Bringing that engineering capability or insight into insurers is hugely powerful to make sure that we build the right products, and we're pricing those products in the right way that's sustainable and reflective of the risk. They're a partner that's really important in bringing this future solution together.”

Looking ahead towards the future of autonomous driving, Moore continues:

“I think in the next five years, we’ll see rapid expansion of use cases around autonomy in lots of different circles – whether that's agriculture, trucking and long-haul driving, industrial manufacturing, or construction. I think all of those industries will see much more autonomy.

“From an insurance perspective, we will see those autonomous vehicle providers embedding insurance within their product, because it will take too long for traditional insurance companies that are currently insuring those verticals to build products that adequately cover autonomous-type operations. That'll be a huge market shift. Some people will say ‘I don’t write motor insurance, so why should I care about autonomous vehicles?’ However, I think it disrupts every insurance vertical that we have today. Autonomy will be just another insurance vertical, because it needs a brand new insurance solution.

“And then, for Apollo, we believe we are a relative first-mover in this space, but we are also very aware that collaboration is key in order to provide capacity for this huge autonomous opportunity. What we want to do is strategically partner with other insurers on providing large chunks of capacity on a wording that is fit for purpose, on a pricing basis that is reflective of the risk at hand. We're speaking to many insurers today – and whether we build that under consortiums, reinsurance agreements or however else, it's all about creating a partnership model that will deliver an insurance product for a much-needed industry as we want it to grow and flourish.”

AWARDS

The Global FinTech Awards 2024 will be celebrating the very best in Fintech with the following categories:

Digital Banking Award

–PayTech Award

–

Digital Currency Award

–

FinTech Award

–InsurTech Award

–

Sustainable FinTech

–

FinTech Technology Award

–

FinTech Consultancy Award

–

Future Leader Award

–

Executive of the Year Award

–

Project of the Year Award

–

Lifetime Achievement Award

USING PARAMETRIC INSURANCE TO MITIGATE OUR CHANGING PLANET

Climate change is causing an unprecedented increase in freak weather patterns – and in return, insurers are turning to parametric insurance as a solution

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE

Parametric insurance is a type of insurance cover that provides a preagreed payout to customers in the event that predefined parameters are met. In recent years, it has proven particularly popular for insuring businesses and homeowners against the risk of natural catastrophes (nat cats); when water levels, wind strengths or seismic activities reach a certain level, the insurer pays out an agreed sum to the insured party.

As it negates the need for loss adjusters, parametric insurance is able to provide much quicker compensation to customers after the fact. The automated nature of parametrics pulls data from public sources, like weather agencies, meaning a quicker and more seamless claims process. So, is it all it stacks up to be?

Where is parametric insurance most popular?

Understandably, parametric insurance has been heavily weighted so far towards nat cats, for which it is particularly suitable. The data is readily available; insurers understand the impact that serious nat cat events can have; and there is a need to deal better with the significant damage caused by hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes – something that will only get more problematic in the coming years, as climate change continues to affect our planet.

“We view parametric products as a way to augment the market and provide coverage where other insurers are unable,” says Mark Hara, US CEO of FloodFlash. “The protection gap we are hoping to fill is often caused by a combination of difficulties modelling

PETER LACOVARA HEAD OF COMMERCIAL, FLOODBASE

the damage caused by flooding or securing capacity. You can see these factors play out across the US, perhaps most predictably in Florida. On the other side of the country, California may not have the same risk factors – but underinsurance is still a huge problem. That’s to say that severe weather risk isn’t isolated to one particular area. All 50 states have experienced floods in the last 10 years, so there’s a large market out there for new products to help.”

Parametric insurance has provided proof-of-concept in the US, which faces a multitude of severe weather events from coast to coast every year. But it’s also beginning to gain traction in other parts of the globe that face extreme weather.

Peter Lacovara, Head of Commercial at Floodbase, explains: “Growth in parametrics largely began in the most natural catastrophe-prone regions, where capacity constraints and the physical damage focus of indemnity left significant economic value exposed. Over time, however, parametrics have demonstrated unique value in lowerdata environments such as the developing world, where the requirements of traditional underwriting can be harder to meet than those of parametrics.

THE BRIGHTEST FUTURE FOR INDEMNITY AND PARAMETRICS IS INCORPORATING THE BEST ELEMENTS OF EACH INTO A MORE COHESIVE SOLUTION”

“From a committed capacity standpoint, the vast majority of parametrics are still nat cat covers,” he continues, “but the value of parametrics in low-data environments is fuelling swift growth in non-cat exposures where indemnity is less competitive, or can’t be delivered at all.”

Achieving scale with parametric insurance

One obstacle holding parametrics back is its ability to scale. This is primarily driven by the cost, FloodFlash’s Hara claims. “Modelling is certainly one part of that – but you also need to collect accurate, reliable trigger data in a

“PARAMETRIC PRODUCTS ARE A WAY TO AUGMENT THE MARKET AND PROVIDE COVERAGE WHERE OTHER INSURERS ARE UNABLE”

MARK HARA US CEO, FLOODFLASH

cost-effective manner. FloodFlash emerged from advances in affordable IoT technology and data processing. We’ve mapped every single property in the US and can provide a quote after just a few questions now. The parametric boom we are seeing now is a reaction to protection gaps around the world, but it wouldn’t be possible without the tech and data innovation that underpins each product.”

Despite these cost challenges, it isn’t always necessary to gather separate data for every catastrophe you insure or every market you enter. Lacovara elaborates:

“For many perils such as floods, parametrics require considerably less ‘local’ information and modelling, and can be extrapolated more easily than traditional indemnity.

“Moreover, knowing every detail of the underlying risk isn’t necessary; for example, ample parametric capacity has been deployed in the US Pacific Northwest, even though we have rarely witnessed the M9+ events we know the Cascadia region can produce. More recently, programmes have been developed for countries in Latin America and Africa where there is, in some cases, as few as 20 years of data.”

Conveniently for parametric insurers, the scope for each policy is much narrower than traditional homeowners’ insurance, so risk becomes slightly easier to manage. Lacovara continues: “The core pricing mechanism for parametric insurance is typically only reliant on a single degree of freedom – how likely is a specific set of events to happen? Thus, carriers must only price for the uncertainty of that single set of events. Relative to indemnity insurance (which has many elements of uncertainty), this gives more margin for error for that one estimate, and makes parametrics inherently more scalable and means they require less data overall.”

What future risks will parametrics underwrite?

Both our experts are excited by the opportunities that increased uptake of parametric insurance would provide. Although most emerging risks are not currently covered by parametrics, some might be in the future.

“Just a few years ago, even parametric flood wasn’t possible at scale,” explains Floodbase’s Lacovara. “However, the commercial satellite industry has provided the information necessary to build these parametric programmes worldwide. Similarly, wildfire has emerged as a parametric solution that relies on satellite data unavailable a few years ago.

“It’s unlikely that the parametric insurance industry will directly drive much of the innovation that’s necessary to insure new things on a parametric basis – but more likely that carriers, MGAs, brokers and insurtechs will find new and clever ways to use technology to do so. There’s an adage: ‘If there’s data, you can build a parametric’. While not literally true, the spirit is probably correct.”

“It’s a well-worn phrase but it’s true to say that if you can measure something, you can create a corresponding parametric insurance product,” says Hara. “We’ve seen great examples of parametric insurance in varied

How FloodFlash Works | USA version

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use cases from freight insurance to server downtime coverage.”

Hara believes that, eventually, we will see parametric insurance unshackle itself from the bounds of nat cat lines: “We envision a future where, with the right data, you could feasibly insure against drops in customer sentiment or other non-damage impacts on business profitability,” he says. “There’s a lot of growth yet to emerge from the parametric markets.”

Working hand-in-hand with indemnity insurance

One of the industry’s sore points so far –at least in the eyes of the consumer, who is only interested in affordable cover that pays out when their property is damaged –is the notion of parametric insurance as a stopgap measure. The lack of loss adjusters means quicker claims payouts. Still, it can also lead to customers being out of pocket if the actual loss they incur from a serious weather event is greater than the compensation agreed with their insurer when they took out the policy. Consequently, many consumers see parametric insurance as a type of ‘bounceback cover’, used to get them back on their feet while they wait for their traditional insurance policy to run its long and arduous course.

This is a perception that parametric insurers must address – but collaborating with incumbent insurers could be the sector’s strength, rather than its weakness. “Negative basis risk – the difference between actual economic loss and insured loss – is a potential challenge to parametrics,” Lacovara says.

“Indemnity, however, also has basis risk: it’s included as terms, conditions, deductibles, exclusions, sub-limits and so on. The brightest future for indemnity and parametric is incorporating the best elements of each into a more cohesive solution, which provides the

expediency and broadness of a parametric while eliminating gaps.

“While many parametric programmes are designed to dovetail with conventional indemnity programmes, they continue to be separate policies largely because of the challenges of aligning two necessarily different policy forms. Many insurers are looking at offering indemnity and parametric together, especially in the personal lines space. For flood or wind coverage, individuals can benefit immensely from the addition of a parametric as an endorsement onto a homeowner’s policy. A single buying process with aligned policy forms would increase parametrics’ penetration into all insurance segments, and close the global protection gap.”

“There are many more ways in which [parametric policies] can work to benefit customers and insurers – particularly in the reinsurance space,” Hara adds. “That’s why we’re always keen to show how parametrics enhance the market as an additional source of coverage, rather than competing for the same policies.”

“THE COMMERCIAL SATELLITE INDUSTRY HAS PROVIDED THE INFORMATION NECESSARY TO BUILD PARAMETRIC PROGRAMMES WORLDWIDE”

PETER LACOVARA HEAD OF COMMERCIAL, FLOODBASE

CRYPTO

CREATING AN INSURABLE ENVIRONMENT

As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, we look at the nuances of insuring cryptoassets and ask: is this something insurers want to offer?

WRITTEN BY: LOUIS THOMPSETT

CRYPTO

Cryptocurrencies have been with us since 2009, when Bitcoin software was made available to the public.

Initially an outsider technology, crypto has taken significant leaps in its 14-year history, from Bitcoin reaching parity with the US dollar in 2011 and surpassing the US$1tn value mark in 2021 to the birth of decentralised finance (DeFi) platform Ethereum in 2015. Add to that the institutional backing from legacy banks like Morgan Stanley and tech firms – including China’s Meitu – to solidify crypto as an asset class, alongside a new EU regulatory framework from 2024, and crypto’s standing seems all but secured.

However, crypto’s rise has not been without volatility, with celebrity endorsement of Dogecoin from Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live seeing its market worth take huge swings in the space of a few hours in 2021. Earlier issues included

the collapse of Japan’s Mt. Gox exchange in 2013 – which was handling 70% of all Bitcoin transactions at the time – and the recent US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing against XRP (more on this later), both of which paint a mixed picture when it comes to the overall consensus of trust in cryptoassets.

As cryptocurrencies continue to grow and become more mainstream, with their associated baggage of volatility and security risks attached, demand for crypto insurance policies may certainly become more prominent so investors and crypto firms alike can protect their assets.

Crypto: a risky policy avenue for insurers?

Daniel Seely, Financial Services Regulatory Lawyer for law firm Freeths, says demand in some form of crypto insurance policy “will inevitably grow” alongside cryptocurrencies themselves, but the issue is “whether insurers will be willing to offer it”.

DANIEL SEELY FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATORY LAWYER, FREETHS

For Seely, the terms and price that insurers offer crypto coverage are very much up for discussion, and “there are also many nuances that will need careful consideration by insurers and policyholders alike”. This includes “the fluctuating value of cryptoassets (in fiat currency terms), which raises questions about how, in the event of a claim, an insurer values a claim settlement – is the value of the asset set based on the value at the point the policy was purchased, or at the point of the claim?” With this in

mind, the growth of crypto insurance seems somewhat stunted by established standard practices and uniformity in what the correct claims valuation process should look like.

Though this may appear as a significant structural obstacle in any potential policyholder growth rate for crypto insurance, Coincover’s Business Unit Director Katharine Wooller feels the growing distribution of ledger technology means crypto claims are now easier to price.

She says: “The real benefit of distributed ledger technology is that the data is freely available and immutable. As the industry has been around in its current guise for around five years, there’s now enough data to reliably and cost-effectively price the risk” of owning cryptoassets.

Wooller states: “Now, there are a variety of insurance-based regtechs adding real value,

“Is the value of the asset set based on the value at the point the policy was purchased, or at the point of the claim?”

Should crypto be regulated?

After the EU passed a vote to implement the first regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in a major financial market, Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), what does this mean for the future of crypto, where decentralised assets are regulated?

Seely feels that its introduction “may serve to increase general confidence and faith in cryptoassets”, which, even now, is seen as “a ‘Wild West’ area full of unpredictability”. Not only this, but the passed regulatory framework, scheduled to be implemented from 2024, “may serve to provide more stability and consistency for these assets, as well as providing more legal and regulatory protection”.

So, not only could this help insurers “increasingly see cryptoassets as a market they can meaningfully explore and develop”, according to Seely, but it also suggests that the positives of regulating crypto outweigh the concerns of those Wooller calls “crypto purists”.

She adds: “Crypto purists will claim that truly decentralised assets should not be regulated; while, philosophically, this may be true, the reality is that bad actors exist everywhere and prevent what every financial system needs: trust.

“Regrettably, regulators have been slow to adapt; globally, the digital assets industry reached US$3tn before governments focused on providing regulatory clarity. For the industry to truly succeed, and for blockchain technology to reach its full potential, there needs to be robust, proportionate regulation. Part of that cure is insurance protections for retail and institutional investors alike when the worst can and invariably does happen.”

both in terms of indemnity insurance and in protecting against hacking, scams and lost access. Unsurprisingly, in some jurisdictions, regulators are making insurance-based solutions a requirement, which will be of long-term benefit to investors and the ecosystem alike.”

Issues extend far beyond crypto

Though a wide-ranging regulatory requirement for crypto insurance is not currently apparent in all global markets, there has, perhaps, been recent cause for the protection of cryptoassets to be made a

legal requirement. This is after the SEC sued San Francisco-based Ripple, alleging its XRP cryptocurrency is an unregistered securities offering – or an investment contract “without a contract” – as opposed to a currency. This has damaged the market value of XRP (which you can’t insure against, unfortunately); should the SEC’s case win (the case is ongoing at the time of writing), it would mean XRP investors have placed their funds into an illegitimate cryptoasset.

Although this example could lead to wider volatility and mistrust in crypto, Seely notes: “The issues surrounding cryptocurrency do

“There is now enough data to reliably and cost-effectively price the risk”

KATHARINE WOOLLER BUSINESS UNIT DIRECTOR, COINCOVER

Insure your crypto currencies against theft & private key loss

suggest that insuring assets is an important decision to make. However, it should be considered that the issues surrounding crypto are not necessarily exclusive to crypto – corporate failings, scams and other such problems can equally affect more ‘standard’ industries and financial markets, as the recent issues with Silicon Valley Bank showed us.”

Wooller echoes this sentiment: “The benefits of insurance extend well beyond individual coins; all digital assets are at risk of hacking, theft and loft access. Many crypto businesses try to ‘self insure’ using their own balance sheet – which, of course, is disastrous in the case of hacks, the recent furore around FTX, and, more importantly, the contagion across the whole crypto industry as a case in point.”

As far as crypto is concerned, Wooller feels there is no excuse for firms not to provide their customers with the protections available due to the number of reputable insurance-based products on the market.

What needs to change so more insurers offer crypto policies?

Though there are insurance products for crypto on the market, when will more insurers start to adopt it – or, more pertinently, will they adopt it?

“The safer the industry can be made, the more appealing it becomes – although, of course, the appetite for insurance grows as the market cap grows”

KATHARINE WOOLLER BUSINESS UNIT DIRECTOR, COINCOVER

Seely tells us: “This will depend on what type of customer is being targeted. A standard business that accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment from customers or suppliers may only have need of a policy that provides protection in the event of any theft of their assets, in the same way that it may provide protection for theft of cash. In such cases, an insurance offering can likely be provided more easily.

“For more sophisticated crypto-focused businesses or markets, the demands and needs may be much more complex, requiring more bespoke policies. In such cases, these businesses will likely need to ensure that they have a sufficiently thorough business plan, setting out their long-term business proposals in detail to allow insurers to make an informed view on the potential risk and provide appropriate terms.”

As a result, Seely feels the crypto industry “needs to make sure that it is not focusing solely ‘on the tech’ but is also producing a

more ‘complete’ business package that can deal with matters such as business planning, insurance and compliance”. She goes on to state that “businesses such as these will inevitably appear more favourable to insurers and help provide insurers the comfort they need to be willing to provide appropriate policies to allow the industry to flourish”.

Wooller calls it a “chicken and egg” situation: “The safer the industry can be made, the more appealing it becomes – although, of course, the appetite for insurance grows as the market cap grows.

“More importantly, the crypto industry needs to appreciate that the more we can grow trust in the ecosystem, the healthier the prices will look; a flywheel to mass adoption cannot be ignored.”

Whether mass adoption occurs at some point in the future remains to be seen, although if it does, the complexities and nuances of crypto business insurance will likely need to be ironed out – particularly if firms are soon to be required to insure their products as well as consumers needing to ensure their cryptoassets.

Using AI to speed up the insurance claims journey

How is artificial intelligence (AI) being used in the insurance industry to make the claims process simpler, quicker and more seamless for customers?

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the insurance industry by unleashing new capabilities and allowing insurers to smooth over historic frictions that have frustrated customers. One of the biggest frustrations insured customers have revolves around the speed of the claims process; once a loss has occurred, they want to submit their claim quickly and smoothly, receiving their payout without unreasonable delay.

In the last five years, chatbots have become the torch-bearer for AI technologies in the insurance industry. They are the most visible AI experience for customers, helping to filter out the simplest queries that can be dealt with online without the need for a human customer service agent. But what are the other applications for AI in the insurance industry, particularly when it comes to speeding up the claims journey?

How can AI improve the insurance industry?

As well as customer service chatbots, AI can remove some of the traditional inefficiencies in the insurance claims journey, says Puneet Dikshit, Head of the Insurance Business Unit at WNS, a provider of global business process management. “Claims processes often suffer from considerable inefficiencies due to legacy infrastructure and fragmented processes, further exacerbated by the ongoing consolidation of the industry marketplace,” Dikshit explains.

“However, AI has emerged as a solution to address these inefficiencies by providing a unified perspective across the ecosystem, focusing on product centricity while remaining platform-agnostic. This platform-agnostic feature enables the seamless integration of AI platforms with existing systems, facilitating scalability and customisation.”

AI can also be used to help insurers spot patterns of suspicious or potentially

fraudulent behaviour, freeing up claims handlers to focus on delivering good customer service. “AI can play a significant role in speeding up the claims process in the insurance industry,” asserts Jason Landrum, Global Chief Information Officer at Sedgwick.

“By using AI-powered algorithms to analyse data and automate tasks, insurers can reduce the time it takes to process claims from initial filing to settlement. AI can also help detect fraudulent claims and provide insights into patterns of behaviour that can improve risk assessment and pricing. In addition, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can improve customer experience by providing quick and efficient support to claimants. Overall, AI has the potential to streamline the claims process, reduce costs and enhance customer satisfaction – making it an important tool for insurers looking to stay competitive in an increasingly digital world.”

Will AI replace humans in the insurance industry?

As AI has become a mainstream technology, a number of concerns have begun to surface. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, launched in November 2022, has been a hot topic of late. But concerns about the privacy and security of data have resulted in a ban in Italy, and other governments are looking cautiously towards the AI sector. The CEO of OpenAI

“AI can play a significant role in speeding up the claims process in the insurance industry”

JASON LANDRUM

GLOBAL CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, SEDGWICK

recently told US lawmakers that AI needed to be regulated. Concerns about the future of AI are not limited to privacy and security; there are also fears about the accuracy of information outputted by AI chatbots (ChatGPT itself only claims to be up-to-date to September 2021) as well as the eternal question of whether AI will replace human jobs and cause mass redundancies.

Dikshit believes that AI can work harmoniously with human customer

service agents to augment their role. “AI has ushered in a significant transformation in the claims model, shifting it from being led by humans at the forefront to now being driven by AI with humans in the loop,” he says. “For instance, claims teams often struggle to make sense of the overwhelming amount of unstructured data they receive. Moreover, the manual data extraction practices that many companies employ drive significant inefficiencies in cost and time. AI can process unstructured data and rapidly convert it into a structured format, automating claims settlement.

“This shift has resulted in a substantial reduction in the reliance on human reviews and assessments, saving valuable time and effort. AI-powered technologies provide real-time intelligence for tasks such as

“The significance of having a digital cloud platform for customers to upload documents effortlessly cannot be overstated”

PUNEET DIKSHIT GLOBAL INSURANCE BUSINESS LEADER AND MD - INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY, WNS GLOBAL SERVICES

Is increased agility in claims processing being driven by consumer demand?

In many ways, insurers are utilising AI to respond to customer needs – faster and more seamless digital experiences, easier claims experiences, and more reliable payment when a loss occurs. It’s clear how AI supports the first two of these missions; reliability is defined in part by an insurer’s ability to gather information, supporting documents, and to understand the nature of a claim, which AI, in conjunction with digital cloud platforms, helps support.

Yet we’ve all been frustrated by an AI chatbot that doesn’t understand our requirements, or feels like a filter to make genuine customer service harder to access. So are insurers using AI in the way that consumers need? “Insurers have recognised that claims can be the primary distinguishing factor influencing customer

experience (CX),” says WNS’ Dikshit. “Consequently, insurers are reassessing their claims operating models to enhance their digital strategies while keeping CX at the core. The primary objective is to streamline the entire process, making it simple for customers, minimising wait times, reducing human intervention and ensuring consistent CX across all interaction channels.”

Landrum elaborates: “The demand for quicker claims processing from consumers is likely to force insurers to devise new ways of working and adopt new business models. In today’s digital world, consumers expect quick and efficient services based on their own consumer experiences, and insurance is no exception. Insurers that fail to meet these expectations risk losing customers to competitors that offer faster and more convenient claims processing. To remain competitive, insurers may need to adopt new technologies and automation tools, such as parametric insurance, to speed up claims processing and improve customer satisfaction.”

damage assessments, fraud detection, coverage validation, liability determination and total loss evaluation among others. These advancements streamline the claims process lifecycle, reducing time and effort.”

The importance of digital cloud platforms

As well as embracing new technologies, insurance companies have to overhaul the way they do business if they’re to remain relevant. This requires substantial cultural change, and a willingness to transform that cascades down right from the top. After all, there is little point embracing AI in one area

of your business – like customer service – if you’re still dependent on incredibly old-fashioned, manual processes elsewhere.

Insurers are beginning to understand the value of cloud-based platforms where customers can make a claim, upload supporting documents and provide information that assists their claim. The entire claims journey, from FNOL onwards, happens in one single ecosystem and removes the convoluted paper trail that previously took place through email or fax. In turn, insurers are able to provide customers with a quicker and more seamless claims experience.

“AI has ushered in a significant transformation in the claims model”

PUNEET DIKSHIT GLOBAL INSURANCE BUSINESS LEADER AND MD - INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY, WNS GLOBAL SERVICES

“Having a digital platform where customers can upload documents, provide self-service capabilities (like signing up for direct deposit) and interact with their examiner is now table stakes for insurers and TPAs to stay competitive in the industry,” Sedgwick’s Landrum says. “Such platforms can streamline the claims process, reduce errors and improve customer experience.

“By automating document upload and other features, insurers can reduce manual effort and human error, leading to a faster claims life cycle and help the claimants who are already dealing with a difficult situation feel more connected and cared for. In addition, a digital platform can enhance data security, as sensitive documents are stored securely rather than being circulated physically through the mail. Overall, a digital platform can improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction, which makes it an essential tool.”

Dikshit continues: “In today’s digital era, where customers prioritise convenience and prompt resolution, the significance of having a digital cloud platform mers is likely to force insurers to devise new ways of working and adopt new business models. In today’s digital world, consumers expect quick and efficient services based on their own consumer experiences, and insurance is no exception. Insurers that fail to meet these expectations risk losing customers to competitors that offer faster and more convenient claims processing. To remain competitive, insurers may need to adopt new technologies and automation tools, such as parametric insurance, to speed up claims processing and improve customer satisfaction.”

Sean Harper is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kin Insurance, an insurtech that aims to simplify the process of attaining home insurance, making it more affordable in highrisk areas prone to severe weather. Kin was conceived after Harper recognised that the home insurance sector still relied on outdated practices, including local broker distribution, legacy IT systems and physical paperwork. Attempting to innovate the home insurance industry, Kin Insurance has raised US$410.2m since Harper co-founded it in 2016. Today, Harper is supported by a team of over 100 professionals, prioritising customer service, intelligent coverage options and the promotion of insurance literacy.

The Co-Founder and CEO of Lemonade, Daniel Schreiber, has helped revolutionise the insurance landscape by leveraging AI and behavioural economics to offer fast underwriting and pricing for renters, homeowners, and car and pet owners.

Lemonade has raised a total of $481m since its founding in 2015, paving the way for insurtechs to seek market gaps and challenge legacy institutions under Screiber’s innovative leadership. With a background in the technology sector after founding Powermat Technologies, Schreiber made a name for himself by harnessing the power of wireless charging technology. Focused on social responsibility, Schreiber is also involved in several philanthropic initiatives.

Daniel Schreiber Co-Founder & CEO Lemonade

Sean Harper CEO & Co-Founder Kin Insurance

John Clark Higgins is the Co-Founder and CEO of insurtech Steady Technologies, a company that has raised US$506m since its founding in 2017. Steady Technologies offers a suite of tailored financial and insurance products designed to reduce the risk for property managers’ generating ancillary revenues. Prior to launching Steady Technologies, Higgins founded Nobadeer Advisors, a company that provides business development, corporate strategy and capital markets expertise. Higgins’ career has also seen him take the positions of Director of Strategic Partnerships at Prosper Marketplace, Director at Topwater Capital Partners and Director of Investor Relations at Doubloon Capital.

Named Mid-Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year for 2020, Swigart has been responsible for overseeing the insurtech since its founding in May 2017. Based in Washington DC, Pie Insurance is in the top 5% of surrounding companies and the top 5% of similar-sized companies in the US capital. Before picking up the mantle as Pie’s CEO, Swigart served on the executive team of Esurance for 13 years, leading financial functions before becoming the company’s CMO. With a deep understanding of current trends, Swigart has been in charge to see a total of US$621m invested into the company. The insurtech provides workers’ compensation insurance exclusively to small businesses.

John Clark Higgins

Co-Founder & CEO

Steady Technologies

John Swigart CEO Pie Insurance

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Max Simkoff is the CEO of San Francisco-based Doma, an insurtech designed to drive solutions that instantly close mortgages. Initially founded as States Title, the company was designed to instantly underwrite title insurance before expanding to handle all aspects of closing and escrow. The insurtech became Doma after a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Capitol Investment Corp took the company public in a deal valued at US$3b. Prior to Doma, Smikoff was Founder and CEO of Evolv, an enterprise predictive analytics software company, which went on to be acquired by Cornerstone. Under Simkoff’s leadership, Doma has raised a total of US$679m.

Health

Ali Diab serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of Collective Health, a globally recognised platform for administering employer health benefit plans. With over 25 years of expertise in spearheading technology organisations in rapid growth phases, Diab has established himself as a prominent figure in the industry.

Prior to co-founding Collective Health, he held the position of VP of Product Management and Business Operations at AdMob, a subsidiary of Google. Diab has also held executive and management roles at renowned companies such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Yahoo!. Today, Collective Health has raised a total of US$719m.

Ali Diab Co-Founder & CEO Collective

Max Simkoff CEO Doma

Alex Timm Co-Founder & CEO

Root Insurance

As the Co-Founder and CEO of Root Insurance, Alex Timm has contributed to the disruption of traditional insurance models by leveraging innovative technology and data analytics. Under his guidance, Root Insurance has become a prominent name in the insurtech sector, offering personalised auto insurance rates based on individual driving behaviour. Timm has also helped Root Insurance expand its embedded insurance offerings through strategic partnerships. Headquartered in Ohio, the insurtech has raised US$827.5m since its founding. In June 2021, Timm released a report detailing how fatherhood has helped change his leadership approach.

Guy Goldstein Co-Founder & CEO

NEXT Insurance

Founding NEXT Insurance in 2016, Guy Goldstein was a national finalist at the Entrepreneur of the Year awards for 2022 for his leadership of the company, which has raised US$881m to date. With a one-stop-shop platform that leverages AI technology, NEXT Insurance now serves over 1,300 classes of business, including restaurant owners, accounts, fitness professionals and general contractors.

Under Goldstein’s leadership, NEXT Insurance received an ‘A-Excellent’ rating from AM Best, reimagining the servicing process for providing SME insurance to make policy offers bespoke to each organisation. With over 20 years of industry experience, Goldstein has previously served as CEO of mobile payment company Check, as well as in executive positions in corporate development.

Wand Co-Founder

Hippo Insurance

Founding Hippo Insurance alongside Eyal Navon back in 2015, Assaf Wand’s insurtech has since made a name for itself as a company that covers the homes and possessions of policyholders, as well as liability from accidents in insured properties, via AI and data to price policies.

Coming from a background in finance, Wand says he has a passion for revolutionising antiquated industries, recognising the need for a simplified home insurance experience. Under Wand’s guidance, Hippo has gained recognition for its smart home coverage, leveraging data and analytics to provide proactive protection for homeowners. Since its founding, Hippo Insurance has raised a total of US$1.3b.

The company’s current CEO is Rick McCarthon, after Wand took up the position of Executive Chairperson in October 2022. Despite stepping back, Wand has shown that he continues to inspire and reshape the industry as a whole by driving significant investment in Hippo Insurance.

Assaf

Mario Schlosser founded Oscar Health alongside his classmates at Harvard Business School, Josh Kushner and Kevin Nazemi. Since being founded in 2012, Oscar Health has raised a total of US$1.6b, with lead investment coming from its parent company Thrive Partners III, owned by Jared and Joshua Kushner – Jared Kushner rose to fame as the son-in-law of former US President Donald Trump. Recently, Schlosser stepped down as CEO of Oscar Health to be replaced by former Aetna executive Mark Bertolini. Nevertheless, during his time as CEO, Schlosser oversaw the company’s expanded membership from 16,000 members in its first year of operations to over 1.1m members by 2020. Schlosser has helped reimagine healthcare insurance by leveraging technology and data analytics, helping create Oscar Health’s user-friendly platform that simplifies the insurance experience.

Mario Schlosser

Co-Founder & former CEO Oscar Health