LMA InsurTech Seminar at Lloyd's Lab - How To Engage With Incumbents

By Concirrus - October 31, 2018

This blog post was written by Sebastian de Zuluenta Founder Director of MarketMinds.

Last week four leading InsurTech companies presented in the Lloyd’s Lab to current and future mentors from the Lloyd’s the market. As part of their fresh innovation agenda, the Lloyd’s Market Association put together this lunch-time seminar as part of their core initiative to educate the Lloyd’s market stakeholders about InsurTech. The LMA have partnered with MarketMinds to help deliver this initiative across the Lloyd’s market.

Lloyd’s Lab manager Ed Gaze, opened the event with a introduction to the functionality of the Lab, more details of which can be found here. The intro was quick and to the point, the first cohort of InsurTech companies have already begun their 10 week acceleration which concludes with a demo day on Wednesday December 12th.

The theme of the discussion was centred around best practices for InsurTech businesses when approaching incumbents for a partnership. Peta Kilian, Head of Innovation at the LMA, chaired the session which included:

 

Partnerships are currently essential to the success of InsurTech businesses with insurance incumbents able to provide capacity, cash flow, access to markets, customers and above all data. 

Incumbents however are slow to move, often with no clear decision-making routes and can often be unfamiliar with new and innovative concepts. InsurTech companies therefore have their work cut out for them and the seminar shed some light on what it is like at the coal face, here are 5 key takeaways and advice for the many InsurTech companies out there:

  1. The sales cycle will take a minimum of 6 months and most likely 12 months, be patient and be persistent.
  2. Engage the whole business, not just the innovation department. Go out and talk to the people who are trading and underwriting every day.
  3. Focus on your product 100% and always be ready and able to ‘pivot’ (alter your business model or product).
  4. For a partnership to work, the personalities involved have to share a common goal or vision and be able to communicate with one another as colleagues.
  5. Keep up with other people in the same market, it’s important to have a support network of other founders and practitioners you can trust.

This is well placed advice, given all of the above companies have been successful in developing partnerships with major incumbents:

  • Nimbla - Munich Re
  • Concirrus - Marsh
  • Flock - Allianz
  • Digital Fineprint - Hiscox

 

The LMA have partnered with MarketMinds and Instech London to initiate education in InsurTech across the Lloyd’s market, both companies run regular events in the InsurTech and insurance innovation space, please contact Peta Kilian for more details. Most recently, the LMA commissioned a report, link here with Oxbow Partners, which gives insight into InsurTech-led change in the Lloyd's market.

Up on the fourth floor in Lloyd’s, perhaps it was the aroma of fresh paint, but there was a scent of change in the atmosphere. The Lab is well worth a visit...

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