InsTech - insurance & innovation with Matthew Grant & Robin Merttens

Nick Mair: CEO & Founder of Atticus DQPro: Delivering Data Certainty (66)

Data is at the heart of many decisions in insurance - pricing, risk mitigation, claims and capital management. But data needs to be high quality - and that requires constant diligence. 

CEO and founder of Atticus DQPro Nick Mair is Matthew’s guest on Episode 66. Nick talks about how he has successfully built a business, with no external funding, and which in only a few years has signed up a number of major insurance companies to help them manage and measure data quality.

Their conversation covered:

• Awareness and adoption of data monitoring tools
• Building a business without external investment
• Make B2B sales to commercial insurers
• Learning how to define and build products
• Tips for aspiring founders
• Podcasts and book recommendations
• Pros and cons of accelerators and incubators

Read (and share) the highlights from this episode on the Podcast section of the InsTech London website, along with all previous episodes. 

If you are listening through a podcast platform and like what you heard, please leave us a review or comment. 

Membership details and other enquiries: hello@instech.london

InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant

Produced by Simon Fyles: simon@instech.london

Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

Erik Abrahamsson: CEO & Founder, Digital Fineprint: Discovering the data to drive decisions (65)

Ask someone to name some of the more successful UK insurtech scale-ups and Digital Fineprint (DFP) often gets a mention.

In 3 years CEO and Founder Erik Abrahamsson has taken DFP from holding meetings in a garden shed to raising £7m in funding and securing an impressive list of clients. 

He joined Matthew on Episode 65 of the InsTech London podcast for a conversation that covered:

• Using new data sources for selecting and pricing SME insurance
• Tips for a new company on pitching to prospective clients
• Why in a world that is turning digital, personal contact still matters in insurance
• How DFP is able to recruit senior people from established insurers 
• Lessons learned from working in the Lloyd’s Lab

If you liked what you have heard then please leave us a review or a comment on your chosen podcast platform. Look out for the shareable summary of this episode at https://www.instech.london/podcasts

Membership details and other enquiries: hello@instech.london

InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant

Produced by Simon Fyles: simon@instech.london

Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

Martha Notaras: Managing Partner, Brewer Lane Ventures: Investment, insight & influence (64)

The launch of a new Insurtech fund – Brewer Lane Ventures – was announced earlier this month. Martha Notaras will be Managing Partner along with founder John Kim. Martha was formerly part of the team at XL Innovate – investing in successful startups such as Lemonade, Cape Analytics and Slice and she has many years of experience in identifying and investing in technology companies in and outside of insurance.   

Martha is also well known as a lively and informed presenter and panelist at insurance and technology conferences. Matthew talks to Martha from her office in California. The topics they cover include:

• New opportunities in insurtech including climate change and cyber. Why the past is not a good guide to the future.
• Data and the challenges for insurers. 
• How the reaction of incumbent insurers to the relevance of insurtech has changed over the last few years.
• The best way to keep up to date with what is happening in insurance and technology
• The goals for Brewer Lane Ventures and the type of companies it will be investing in

Look out for the summary of this discussion at https://www.instech.london/podcasts

Membership details and other enquiries: Hello@instech.london

InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant

Produced by Simon Fyles: simon@instech.london

Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

 

 

Bernard Goyder: Senior Reporter, Insurance Insider: An Englishman in New York (63)

This week we're talking once again to Bernard Goyder, a journalist with Insurance Insider. Bernard is currently on a posting to New York, having previously been the Insurance Insiders' technology correspondent in London. We last featured Bernard in June 2019 shortly after he arrived in the US and Matthew catches up to find what the world of insurance, technology and insurtech looks like from the US.

The areas we cover include:

• A review of the end of year reinsurance renewals (and what they are)
• What's happening in the casualty market
• Why MGAs and insurance brokers have been such attractive acquisition targets
• Commercial auto in the US and why this is an opportunity for insurtech
• Telematics, modelling wildfire, cyber and property exposure
• Disruption opportunities in the claims market
• Will Lloyd's of London move to profitability this year?
• Scale-up Insurtechs to look out for

If you enjoyed this, then take a look at our website www.instech.london to find all our other podcasts, events, newsletter sign up. 

InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant

Produced by Simon Fyles: simon@instech.london

Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

 

 

Insurance leadership: what do they really care about? (62)

We've interviewed well over 100 people in 2019 and you can hear most of them on the InsTech London podcasts. Our guests share fantastic insights - whether on stage speaking to us at our events, or for Matthew's longer in-depth interviews.  The leaders from insurance companies, the founders and CEO of technology companies (small and large) that they are working with and others that are truly influencing the shape of the industry.

Over the break we've been looking to see what consistent themes have emerged during our chats to some of the leading figures from a handful of the largest and most well-known insurance companies in the world. Some of the most frequent topics that came up were:

1. Why it's important to look at the customers' problems when considering innovation opportunities.
2. How data is really being used, with a particular emphasis on what the future of IOT holds.
3. The importance of partnerships between insurtech and other technology providers and insurers.
4. The emergence of the augmented underwriter.
5. How to encourage innovation throughout a large organisation.

We're starting off the year with the specific thoughts on these topics pulled from conversations with some of our most popular guests:

Sean Ringsted, Chief Digital Officer for Chubb (episode 35)

Graham Elliott, CEO & Founder of Azur Underwriting (episode 37)

Adrian Jones, Head of Ventures & Strategic Partnerships at SCOR Global P&C (episode 42)

James Slaughter, CUO for Commercial Speciality at Liberty Mutual (episode 47)

Kelly Ward, AXA Partners on stage at Instech London in November (episode 55)

Michele Williams, Head of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty's central innovation unit XSE  (episode 56)

This episode will give you a useful taster of our full interview (or a chance to hear the highlights again) but the originals are definitely worth a listen. Take a look at the full list of episodes at https://www.instech.london/podcasts

Also - find out what we are thinking each week by signing up to our newsletter 

InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant

Produced by Simon Fyles: simon@instech.london

Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

 

Jacqueline McNamee: CEO &Founder: C-Quence Building a Management Liability MGA (61)

The role, and potential, for MGAs has been much discussed in 2019, with some significant fundraising and acquisitions. 

Jacqueline McNamee, a former underwriter, became frustrated with the speed of innovation at her previous employer and launched C-Quence in 2017. Matthew interviewed Jacqueline for one of the keynote presentations at the Cytora conference in November and this episode has the highlights of their discussion. Topics covered include:

• What is Management Liability insurance
• The sources of data used for underwriting
• Why C-Quence built its own technology stack
• The importance of speed
• The value of the broker channel
• Use of Cytora product

Information on all our podcasts can be found here

To find out about our forthcoming events, how to become a member and register for our newsletter go to www.instech.london

Read Matthew's article "MGAs the fast track to insurance innovation?"

Produced by Simon Fyles, simon@instech.london

Edited by Peter Roach, visualmonkeys.co.uk

The InsTech Partners' wrap up: Looking back, looking forward (60)

Robin and Matthew grabbed some time out from a busy year-end to review their personal highlights from the past 12 months, and take look at what's coming up in the next few months. Topics included: 

• Redefining insurtech 
• From start-ups to the big guys: innovation on all fronts
• Funding
• The growth in the Life & Health market
• Our plans for 2020

Thank you for your downloads and support. If you have liked what you have heard, then please leave us a review on your chosen podcast platform

You can get the latest InsTech London news and event announcements by signing up to our weekly newsletter.

 

Produced by Simon Fyles, Simon@Instech.london

Edited and angel dust by Peter Roach, visualmonkeys.co.uk

Trevor Maynard: Head of Innovation, Lloyd's: New solutions, new markets & the future of Lloyd’s (59)

We've been hearing a lot recently about how Lloyd's of London is looking to harness innovation across many areas to expand the range of insurance it can cover, improve efficiency and find new ways to measure and reduce risk.

The Lloyd's Lab has become an important part of identifying companies that can help Lloyd's and the managing agents writing business there. In previous podcasts we've spoken to founders from companies that have taken part in one of the three cohorts.

For this episode Matthew finds out from Trevor Maynard, the person responsible for the Lab and overseeing innovation across Lloyd's, what the Lab offers and the other initiatives he is leading. Topics include:

• How the ten-week cohorts are structured
• Why and when Lloyd's selects start-ups, scale-ups and mature companies 
• The role of mentors from managing agents and the benefits seen from getting this direct access to the market
• The link between the Lab and the Future at Lloyd’s programme
• Building an innovation culture
• Horizon scanning and the Lloyd’s Product Innovation Facility

You can hear our discussions with previous members of the Lloyd's Lab that have participated in past cohorts in prior episodes: Oasis (32), Describe Data (40), Phinsys (45), Hyperexponential (52) and Praedicat (57)

The horizon scanning reports mentioned in the podcast are available from https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/risk-reports. All the information about the Lloyd’s Lab is available at https://www.lloydslab.com/.

We'll have more to come from the Lloyd's Lab in 2020, include a full evening hosted in collaboration with Trevor and his team. Keep up-to-date with all the latest news and view from InsTech London by taking a look at the regular updates of future and past events - and signing up for our newsletter - at www.instech.london  

Ryan Kottenstette: CEO & Founder of Cape Analytics: Geospatial imagery and aerial insights (58)

Ryan Kottenstette founded Cape Analytics in 2014 to help companies identify building characteristics based on aerial imagery.

Five years on and Cape has analysed 80% of the US population (in terms of physical property risk) with the resulting data being used to help price and manage insurance policies and reinsurance portfolios by over 30 companies. Today the company ranks as one of the best known technology companies in insurance to have emerged in the last few years.  

Ryan and Matthew's topics discussed:

• the challenges (and successes) he has seen when building a company
• using satellite, aircraft and drone data for more accurate pricing
• use of third-party data
• dealing with uncertainty
• the growth in "insurtech" and insurance innovation
• understanding wildfire risks through artificial intelligence
• approving new class plans and rate filings
• the importance of focussing on customer needs

If you want to hear more from Cape Analytics, they will be in London at the end of January and we are hosting a breakfast event for them. Details in the Instech London newsletter. 

You can stay up-to-date with all our 2020 events, plus find out how to become an InsTech London member, at www.instech.london.

Bob Reville: CEO of Praedicat: How to build a liability model (57)

Bob Reville founded Praedicat in 2011 and the company has gone on to create one of the most credible models for understanding emerging risks. 

The idea was born out of a research and development project, with Praedicat now using data science and AI to build products for some of the world’s largest insurers and global investors.

Matthew Grant finds out how Praedicat, which recently completed its time in Lloyd's Lab cohort 3, is helping insurers and others manage large scale liability risks, the impact of regulation and the threat to insurers from a new wave of litigation issues.

You can keep up to date with everything that is happening at InsTech London - past and present - by visiting instech.london. Sign up to our weekly newsletter for our weekly look at what we think is interesting and relevant.

The InsTech London podcast is supported by the Insurance Insider, who are offering our listeners a free copy. You can download the latest issue from insuranceinsider.com.