NEW YORK, NY, July 19, 2020 — InsurTech NY, the largest InsurTech community in North America, announced today that they will be conducting a benchmark study on Corporate Venture Capital.

InsurTech NY has partnered with the IQONIC Hub for Entrepreneurship Research & Education at Tilburg University in the Netherlands to study the organizational structure, best practices, and common themes across insurance carrier and broker affiliated corporate venture groups.

The research will be aggregated, anonymized, and shared at the Corporate Forum organized by InsurTech NY on September 21 in New York City. The IQONIC Hub for Entrepreneurship Research will analyze the data and compare it to their existing body of research on corporate venturing across several industries including broader financial services.

“The corporate venture community in insurance is one of the fastest forming investment groups. Insurance industry venture capital went from near non-existence in 2013 to more than 200 insurance entities having made investments in startups today,” said David Gritz, Managing Director at InsurTech NY. “We want to learn from the segment’s rapid growth over the past decade and apply the learnings to future initiatives.”

“The IQONIC Hub for Entrepreneurship Research is one of the only academic institutions worldwide to dedicate research efforts to understanding corporate venturing,” said Joshua Eckblad, Director of the IQONIC Hub for Entrepreneurship Research. “My research focuses on the practices of corporate venturing units and on the knowledge flows between large established firms and startups. InsurTech is one of the true examples of a symbiotic relationship between incumbents and startup firms working together to grow the industry.”

The research study will include a range of participants from super-regional carriers to Top 5 carriers and brokers. It will include a variety of portfolios, from insurers who have made ad-hoc off-the-balance sheet investments to established corporate venture funds working on their second or third funds.

“NFP Ventures is excited to contribute to this body of research,” said Adam Blumencranz, VP at NFP Ventures. “We are preparing to launch our second fund with NFP and additional capital partners, and the insights we gain from this aggregate research will help us refine investment themes and internal best practices.”

“Transverse started as a venture investor off its balance sheet and now has a venture capital group and special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) to help augment our value proposition to Digital MGAs,” said Mark Hong, Managing Director at Transverse Insurance. “Better understanding our peers will help us to continue to expand our platform to provide the optimal mix of services for our InsurTech partners.”

The assessment can be found at https://cvc2021.paperform.co.

About InsurTech NY

InsurTech NY is an international gateway to bring together the insurance innovation community. It brings together carriers, brokers, investors, and InsurTech startups via educational and networking events, a competition, and an accelerator. InsurTech NY’s mission is to accelerate corporate innovation, drive talent to insurance, make regulation innovation-friendly, and improve access to investment. See more at www.insurtechny.com or follow us on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/insurtechny).

About Tilburg University IQONIC Hub for Entrepreneurship Research & Education

The IQONIC Hub for Entrepreneurship Research & Education offers 12 programs, including a physical Creativity Studio on the Tilburg University Campus in the Netherlands and the Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (E&BI) Bachelor’s degree program. See more on corporate venturing research at: https://www.corporateventuringresearch.org/

NEW YORK, NY, July 7, 2020 — InsurTech NY, the largest InsurTech community in North America, announced today that it will be accepting applications for its growth-stage InsurTech accelerator.

The application window will be open from July 7 to August 2 and applications will be accepted through the InsurTech NY website. The program is designed for growth-stage companies, with an existing customer base, in funding stages between Seed and Series B. Last year, applications were accepted from over 20 countries.

“The InsurTech NY program is built for the moment in time when startups are transitioning from surviving mode to thriving mode”, said David Gritz, InsurTech NY Managing Director. “InsurTechs from our past cohort have gone on to raise over $100 million in follow-on funding and find fruitful partnerships with our carrier and broker partners. This cohort will have the same opportunity.”

The accelerator will follow a “no-fluff” model providing InsurTechs support in the areas they need to scale – market traction, recruiting talent, and raising funds. The program will provide startups with access to insurance carriers and brokers looking to provide capacity and reinsurance and to identify software solutions to their technology challenges. Cohort members have the opportunity to meet rockstar InsurTech founders who have taken their companies public or sold their companies. 

“The InsurTech NY accelerator provides a unique formula for matchmaking that supports carrier core initiatives and removes the bloat of typical time-consuming accelerator programs,” said Steve Bernardez, Partner at Avanta Ventures, the venture capital arm of CSAA Insurance Group. “We look forward to the opportunity to work with InsurTech NY to spot our next unicorn investments and partnership opportunities for CSAA Insurance Group.”

The program will feature more than 20 carriers, brokers, and their affiliated venture arms including Avanta Ventures, CNO Financial, Gallagher, Greenlight Re, Lockton, Nationwide, and Transverse. The 2021 cohort will run as a hybrid model, partially virtual and partially in-person over a six-week period. The program will close with a demo day to more than 20 dedicated InsurTech investors. InsurTechs can apply at insurtechny.com/accelerator.

About InsurTech NY

InsurTech NY is an international gateway to bring together the insurance innovation community. It brings together carriers, brokers, investors, and InsurTech startups via educational and networking events, a competition, and an accelerator. InsurTech NY’s mission is to accelerate corporate innovation, drive talent to insurance, make regulation innovation-friendly, and improve access to investment. See more at www.insurtechny.com or follow us on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/insurtechny).

After 15 months in captivity, carrier and broker offices are trending towards reopening at full capacity. Although air travel is not in full swing yet, the hallmarks of in-person activities are all starting again. Agents are brokers are meeting with clients. Internal meetings are happening in conference rooms that hold more than a few people. And InsurTech conferences are now happening in person.

June 28th marked the first major in-person conference, the Global Insurance Symposium. More than 200 people gathered including insurance commissioners, carrier leaders, and InsurTech founders in Des Moines. But questions remain: will events still have to run hybrid? How many people is too many for events? When will Europe catch up to U.S. vaccination rates?

Seeking to find the right balance, InsurTech NY announced its 2021 accelerator program to run as a hybrid program (3 days in person in NYC, the remaining virtual) in the fourth quarter. Growth-stage startups will have the opportunity to meet 20+ carriers and brokers at the in-person selection day followed by virtual programming to support their business development, talent recruiting, and fundraising activities.

InsurTechs can read about the program and apply at: InsurTech NY Accelerator.
Or join our next information session at: Information session

Spotlight: Core Systems and Claims Automation

On Aug 26th, we will be hosting our next virtual event. Core Systems upgrades and improvements continue to be a major theme for carriers looking to transition their products to a digital world. Moving from legacy systems to SaaS or hybrid cloud platforms can be a make-or-break project for IT departments.

It does not have to be that risky. Learn how carriers using agile methodologies to minimize the risk of core systems transformations and incremental upgrades to breathe new functionality into legacy systems. Beyond the core, sessions will explore how to automate claims using InsurTech solutions and robotic process automation (RPA).

Register at: https://coreandclaims.eventbrite.com/

Upcoming InsurTech Community Events and Programs

The Perennial Core System and Claims Automation (Early-bird tickets available)
Aug 26 | 1PM – 3PM Edu Content and 3PM – 4PM Networking | Fully Virtual
– Featuring: CIO of EverestRe, CIO of Copper Point, and VP of Claims of Palomar

Building Digital Distribution Channel (Early-bird tickets available)
Oct 21 | 5:30PM – 8:30PM | New York + Virtual

Integrating Data to Save Lives – Wellness, Safety and Climate (Early-bird tickets available)
Nov 16 | 5:30PM – 8:30PM | New York + Virtual

InsurTech NY Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the community: Avanta Ventures, Britecore

InsurTech New York Area Deals, Opportunities, and Partner Events

Discover a curated mix of May and June insurance financings, exits, partnerships, opportunities, and partner events on the East Coast.

Partner Events

Insurance AI and Innovative Tech USA 2021 (Sep 14-15): Register here for next Reuters virtual event here.

InsureTech Connect (Oct 4-6): If you have not registered yet, save $200 with our partner discount. Register here.

InsurTech Hartford Symposium (10/26). Pre-register now for discounts before they go live here.

InsurTech Deals

Branch Insurance ($50M, Anthemis Group): Home & Auto Insurance: Operator of insurance platform offering home, car, renter, and umbrella insurance services.

Corvus Insurance ($15M, FinTLV): Commercial: Developer of an AI-driven commercial insurance data platform designed to improve risk selection and management.

Mile Auto ($10M, Ulu Ventures): Auto UBI: Provider of pay-per-mile insurance services intended to offer car insurance for low-mileage drivers based on actual miles driven.

Boost Insurance ($20M, RRE Ventures): Embedded and API: Developer of a digital insurance platform designed to build, embed, and deliver insurance products.

Waffle Labs ($5M, Verve Ventures): Multi-line: Developer of an insurance application designed to provide customizable insurance plans for all products.

Planck ($20M, 3L Capital): Data Analytics: Operator of an AI-based data platform designed to offer real-time insurance-related data analytics insights to insurance providers.