Building on its reputation of nurturing successful startups in the InsurTech space, Lloyd’s Lab has now picked the fourth batch for its accelerator programme.
The London-based accelerator’s first three cohorts have included Layr, a cloud-based platform that helps small businesses buy liability insurance; Parsyl, a provider of an internet of things sensor that can help protect sensitive shipments; Flock, a startup calculating risk associated with drone flights by looking at real time weather, building density and operating temperatures; and ClimaCell, which uses micro-weather forecasting to help customers reduce their exposure to meteorological events.
The 12 businesses picked for the fourth cohort were selected among over 190 applications. They were selected and will be focusing on four different theme: data and models, new insurance products and markets, the future of transportation, and cyber. The programme will start on April 27.
“All 12 of the InsurTechs we have selected bring something different and unique,” said Trevor Maynard, head of innovation at Lloyd’s Lab. “I am thrilled to be working with some of the brightest and best talent from the InsurTech sector to help the Lloyd’s Market develop new ideas that better serve our customers by developing solutions to the problems they face today.”
The first company to be selected in the new batch is KASKO. The company offers “InsurTech as a Service” platform enabling insurers, brokers and coverholders to create digital plug-and-play ready insurance products quickly and cost effectively.
Second up is Skyline, a data and technology focused parametric managing general agent (MGA) for emerging risks and under-protected segments.
Parametrix creates parametric insurance for external service downtime such as cloud outages, network crashes and platform failures. Its products help close the protection gap in business interruption.
Cyber risk has been a hotly debated subject. Big hacks like the ones experienced by Capital One last year has laid bare the risks of the increasingly digitally connected world. Some have even argued that cyber insurance should be mandatory. But whether you think that’s the case or not, the next company to have been selected by Lloyd’s Lab could pitch in.
Kovrr is a platform that enables (re)insurers to financially quantify cyber risk. The startup has already secured $5.5m in a financing round back in September 2019. StageOne Ventures and Mundi Ventures led the round, with participation also coming from Banco Sabadell and other private investors.
BOXX Insurance is offering a solution in an adjacent area. This Canadian company is trying to make it easy for businesses and families to protect themselves from cyber threats by interlocking insurance, big data and technology.
ArtificialOS is a system of cloud-based modular applications that empowers insurers to extract data from both structured and unstructured sources then validate, augment and utilise it for rapid decision making.
This is not the first time FinTech Global has reported about the next startup in Lloyd’s Lab’s new batch – Previsico. This venture offers local and real time surface water flood warnings, tailored to the needs of a range of global insurance customers. It was also recently part of Plug and Play’s European Winter programme.
Sille.Space is the next company on the list and, according to its website, it is “saving lives by satellite.” By tapping into and analysing data from the European Space Agency, this InsurTech company is able to bring a new level of visibility to ground, infrastructure and real-estate deformation and subsidence detection, and monitoring that opens completely new capabilities for the insurance, infrastructure and real estate industries.
Optalitix is an artificial intelligence software company, one of their products enables insurers to convert any desktop model into an API without any infrastructure or code. Back in 2018, it was shortlisted to join Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab London programme.
It’s been a busy few weeks for the next company on the list – Loadsure. Not only has it been named as one of the companies in Lloyd’s Lab’s fourth cohort, but the freight insurance solution provider also raised a £1.1m seed round earlier led by UK-based InsurTech incubator Insurtech Gateway earlier in April.
Koffie is an insurance company purpose built for the next generation of transportation. It uses vehicle-specific artificial intelligence models to redefine underwriting, pricing, and loss control and incentivise the adoption of advanced safety technology.
The final company in the new cohort is Orca AI. This company brings technology into the maritime world with the mission to enhance the safety and efficiency of ship operations. It combines data and deep learning to provide a powerful awareness system and smart alarms.
The new cohort comes as the world is struggling with the coronavirus. While the chaos has disrupted several FinTech companies, some suggest that it could present InsurTech with an opportunity to step in where the disorder has laid bare the limitations of insurers.
“As the COVID-19 crisis continues its devastating march around the world it has never been more important for us to pull together, to use our combined resources and creativity to make a difference,” said Maynard.
Copyright © 2020 FinTech Global
