Matthew Grant and Robin Merttens discuss the latest insurance, innovation and insurtech news that has caught their attention.  The conversation took place to launch our new series of live events on Brighttalk, where we'll be bringing you news and interviews until we can relaunch our events at The Steelyard in London.  You can find out more about what we're planning on our new Brighttalk channel, including details of our Insurtech Survival Guide event on Thursday 6 April.  Continuing Professional Development - Learning Objectives InsTech London is accredited by The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening to an InsTech London podcast, or reading the accompanying transcript, you can claim up to 0.5 CPD hours towards the CII member CPD scheme.   Complete the InsTech London Podcast Feedback Survey to claim your CPD time

Anthemis is one of the most well known investors in technology start-ups and scale-ups supporting insurance and financial services. Portfolio companies include: Goji, Flock, Hockodo, Insurdata, Quantemplate, Stable, Trov, Tremor and Yulife. Matthew Grant caught up with Anthemis partner and former lead investor at Allianz, Ruth Foxe Blader, to learn about how and why Anthemis invests. The discussion covers life before and during the pandemic, as well as a look to the future state of fintech and insurtech.  A great discussion with another instech.london member company. Continuing Professional Development - Learning Objectives InsTech London is accredited by The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening to an InsTech London podcast, or reading the accompanying transcript, you can claim up to 0.5 CPD hours towards the CII member CPD scheme. After listening to Episode 76 you will know: What Anthemis Group means by "embedded finance" How it evaluates companies for the fund What characteristics it looks for when meeting companies Complete the InsTech London Podcast Feedback Survey to claim your CPD time. 

Wondering about how to create a podcast and best practices for recording sound? In Episode 75 of the InsTech London podcasts, we're kicking off a series of "Instech Investigates" - a look beyond the usual topics and a chance to learn more about the skills you or your team may need in today's world.   Matthew talks to former BBC Sound Engineer Peter Roach, who now runs VisualMonkeys and who is normally on the other side of the microphone editing our weekly podcast. Matthew and Peter discuss podcasting and recording techniques, subject types, what equipment to use and how to edit.  You can listen to all the previous episodes of our podcast on the InsTech London website. Continuing Professional Development - Learning Objectives InsTech London is accredited by The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening to an InsTech London podcast, or reading the accompanying transcript, you can claim up to 0.5 CPD hours towards the CII member CPD scheme. After listening to Episode 75 you will know: the equipment you need to record a podcast how to edit your audio  where to distribute your podcast online Complete the InsTech London Podcast Feedback Survey to claim your CPD time.     

Remember when we all got together and ran in person events? Recorded live at The Steelyard, Episode 74 features the highlights from our event with Google Cloud, including what their plans are for insurance and they type of companies they want to work with. InsTech London’s Robin Merttens and Matthew Grant talked to Damion Thompson, Head of Insurance UK, Google Cloud along with some of the partners they are already working with.  Take a trip with us down memory lane to hear more from Cytora, Quantiphi, Quantexa, Aviva and Apigee. A written summary of Episode 74, plus a gallery of photos for you to view, download and share, is available on the InsTech London website. Continuing Professional Development - Learning Objectives InsTech London is accredited by The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening to an InsTech London podcast, or reading the accompanying transcript, you can claim up to 0.5 CPD hours towards the CII member CPD scheme. After listening to Episode 74 you will learn: Why Google Cloud is interested in working with the insurance industry How its technology can help insurers What sort of partners they are looking to work with Complete the InsTech London Podcast Feedback Survey to claim your CPD time. 

This week's episode, recorded in February 2020 - is a great lesson in the "art of the possible" when it comes to having, and delivering on a bold vision.  CEO & founder Gary Hoberman and his team have raised more than $150m for Unqork since the company was founded in 2017, to provide "no code" solutions to insurers. Today the company is working with a number of insurers, and at scale. Wondering if legacy is still a problem? Keep listening.   Matthew Grant finds out how and why Gary founded the company on Episode 73 and why their no-code solution is capturing so much attention. Topics include: what no-code actually means how companies are managing the move from legacy systems making an impact with key decision-makers and investors building a business and team at speed A written summary of the key insights is on the InsTech London website podcast page Keep up to date with all of our podcasts and the latest news from InsTech London members by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. Continuing Professional Development InsTech London is accredited by The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening to an InsTech London podcast, or reading the accompanying transcript, you can claim up to 0.5 CPD hours towards the CII member CPD scheme. Complete the InsTech London Podcast Feedback Survey to claim your CPD time. 

This week we have a "pandemic podcast" special edition. A series of interviews recorded on Thursday 12 March, the day after the WHO had declared Covid-19 Coronavirus a pandemic. In this 40 minute edition Matthew Grant sets the scene for exploring the potential for new and established innovation, analytics and data to help manage the spread of the virus in the short term, and improve insurance offerings and understanding and mitigation of the risk in the future.  Matthew reviews the context of the pandemic to understand how what we are hearing in the news compares to medical opinion, talking to Dr Chris Martin. Whilst there has been modelling of pandemics and research in the medical community, it's been somewhat limited for insurance purposes. Robert Muir-Wood, Chief Research Officer for RMS, the catastrophe modelling company provides an overview of the issues, the impact from an insurance perspective and how Covid-19 can be modelled and losses estimated.  The impact on the insurance industry will be significant. Sam Casey from Insurance Insider, has been talking to insurers and provides an assessment of the breadth of covers affected, and some of the largest unknowns such as the potential for cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics. Nick Wildgoose, formerly responsible for supply chain at Zurich Insurance, explains some of the challenges and potential pinch points. SparkBeyond is providing AI tools to help the Italian government understand and manage the spread of the virus and Alex Easaw explains what they have been finding.  Matthew released a companion article to this podcast on Saturday, available here on Linkedin. We are planning to continue to review the lessons to be learnt from Covid-19, impact on the insurance industry, data sources available and opportunities for innovation.  Thanks to all our guests for taking the time to speak to us at a busy time, and Peter Roach of Visual Monkeys for the fast turnaround of this episode.   

Concirrus is one of the most well-known companies in London to have emerged in recent years, providing analytics for commercial underwriting to a growing list of insurers. CEO and Co-founder Andrew Yeoman joined Matthew on Episode 71 to talk about his motivation for starting the company, how Concirrus has grown and the future opportunities for helping insurers and companies with risk selection and risk prevention.   Topics include:  How to be relevant when talking to potential clients Finding relevance and insight in third-party data New technology and the challenges and opportunities facing the industry Developments in marine underwriting and commercial fleet insurance Read and share our summary here  You can hear more from Concirrus at our Lessons from Insurance Innovations in Motor, Mobility and Beyond evening event on 30 March, with Chris Gill among the speakers. More about what we are up to at: www.instech.london To keep up to date with future podcasts and news from other InsTech London members, sign up to our weekly newsletter.

After honing his skills and gaining experience in other industries, David King settled on insurance and, with co-founder Johnny Bridges set up Artificial Labs in 2013. Today Artificial is helping deliver major efficiencies for insurance companies in how they collect and analyse third-party data. David joined Matthew on Episode 70 of the InsTech London podcast and topics include: Why the insurance industry is a great place to launch a business The benefits of different accelerators and incubators Lessons learned from Ping An and the Chinese market Identifying the right technology mix for different clients When to bring in a CEO The importance of networking and relationship building You can read more key highlights from Matthew and David’s conversation on the InsTech London website. David also appeared on Episode 22 of the podcast, appearing on stage at our event in April last year to discuss the launch of Tarian’s new cyber MGA.  Membership details and other enquiries: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk  

Proving that it's never too late to start a new business, John Cavanagh retired as CEO from Willis Re in 2017 to set up Beat Capital with Tom Milligan (previously Co-CEO of Ariel Re). Today Beat Capital is supporting multiple underwriting businesses, set up by experienced and entrepreneurial underwriters. John has been working for over 45 years in insurance, including 21 years at international specialty reinsurance broker RK Carvill where he was joint CEO. In addition to running Beat Capital, John is Chairman of Slipcase, founded by Alex Hearn.  It was a real pleasure to speak to such an experienced and well known figure from the global insurance market. Matthew has known John for many years and he is a long time supporter of the use of technology, data and analytics to enhance underwriting and risk management.   This wide-ranging discussion includes: Launching a start-up The importance of Lloyd's in the global insurance market The balance between using analytics and underwriting intuition The role of the new "Syndicate in a box" at Lloyd's (and what that actually means) Why John got involved with Slipcase and why what they do is so relevant for insurance Getting the right work-life balance You can find, read and share the summary of this discussion, along with all our other podcasts at https://www.instech.london/podcasts Membership details and other enquiries: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

As data becomes more widely available, underwriters may have more information to select and price the business they are taking on, but they don't have more time. This week Matthew Grant talks to Richard Hartley about how Cytora has grown since 2014, the challenges of being a founder and how the company helps insurers identify and focus on the accounts that are going to be more profitable. Topics include: Finding investors as a start-up and scale-up The challenges of building a team as the company evolves Cytora's clients Distributing through other platforms The role of accelerators and incubators  For a written summary of this discussion - and more information about Instech London go to https://www.instech.london/podcasts Membership details and other enquiries: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk   

Live highlights from the InsTech London "Future of Payments" evening at The Steelyard on 21st January 2020 hosted by Robin Merttens and Matthew Grant Mastercard's Ian Slater & Ruth Polyblank discuss:  Why Mastercard is so enthusiastic about the opportunities of working with partners in insurance  Lessons from the banks and fintech - and relevance for insurtech Why data will change perceptions of insurance How insurers can collaborate with Mastercard Followed by Laura Harvey, Strategic Director at Davies Group on the benefits of virtual credit numbers (VCN) to speed up payments to policyholders. A written summary of Ian, Ruth and Laura’s conversations is available on the podcast section of our website - https://www.instech.london/podcasts You can also download the full agenda and photos from our Past Events section - https://www.instech.london/past-events/future-of-payments-in-insurance Membership details and other enquiries: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

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: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

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: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk

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: [email protected] InsTech London Podcast Host: Matthew Grant Produced by Simon Fyles: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk    

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: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk    

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: Why it's important to look at the customers' problems when considering innovation opportunities. How data is really being used, with a particular emphasis on what the future of IOT holds. The importance of partnerships between insurtech and other technology providers and insurers. The emergence of the augmented underwriter. 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: [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach: visualmonkeys.co.uk  

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, [email protected] Edited by Peter Roach, visualmonkeys.co.uk

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, [email protected] Edited and angel dust by Peter Roach, visualmonkeys.co.uk

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 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 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.   

Allianz is one of the world's largest insurance companies, so how does an organisation that size stay ahead when it comes to innovation? Matthew talks to Michele Williams, Head of Allianz Global Corporate Corporate & Specialty's central innovation unit XSE, to find out what the group is doing, and the areas of analytics and data they are interested in. Michele explains Allianz's strategy for producing new ideas - which are focussed around their clients' needs - and how they work with start-ups, scale-ups and technology providers. Michele explains how Allianz's Trend Compass tool has become a central focus for looking at which directions the insurance market might head in. The tool is available for anyone on the Allianz website - https://tci.agcs.allianz.com/ To find out all that we are up to at InsTech London - including our growing corporate member list, and details of last two years events take a look at www.instech.london. Our events begin again in January 2020. We're delighted to be bringing you this podcast with support from the Insurance Insider. For a free copy follow this link -  http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/

In our last episode we brought you the first half of our event on the 22nd October on Platforms and Ecosystems. We're back with the second part of the evening this time. Robin's on stage talking to four companies (three of whom are corporate members and one a start-up) all with very different approaches to providing access to data, analytics from third parties. Kelly Ward, Sales, Marketing and Distribution Director, AXA Partners (2:10) Andrew Passfield, CEO and Al Robertson, CTO, ICE InsureTech (9:00) Mark Dreux, Head of Strategy and Business Development, DMS (16:00) Jerad Leigh & Ben Rose, Co-Founders, RiskBook (24:00) You can read the summary of the evening, see photographs from the event and the full agenda on the dedicated event page on our website at https://www.instech.london/past-events/emerging-ecosystems-and-platforms-for-insurance And check out all our podcasts, events and future activities at www.instech.london    

Platforms are emerging as one of this year's top topics for insurance and technology - and we are going to hear a lot more about them in the next year. Start-ups have been finding it hard to get the attention of insurers, and experience is showing that most insurers are not really set up to nurture early stage companies. Insurance technology platforms provide a way for insurers to more easily access data, analytics and the related services they need to improve efficiency and engagement - and for technology companies to get to insurers. Our event on 22nd October at The Steelyard featured companies talking about their platforms and their ecosystems. In this, the highlights from the first half of the event, Matthew is on stage with our sponsors Novidea, their platform Salesforce and their ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) Conga and Financial Force.  You can read our summary of the whole event on the dedicated page on our website - and see photos and details of all the speakers. Look out for the remainder of the evening that included Guidewire, ICEinsurtech, AXA, DMS and RiskBook. We're delighted to be bringing you this podcast with support from the Insurance Insider. For a free copy follow this link -  http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/  

Not every innovative, fast-growing technology company in insurance is a start-up. RDT was founded in 1991, but Mark Bates has the energy, enthusiasm and tech driven vision more commonly founded in early-stage companies. He's grown RDT to be one of the leaders in the UK providing the core underwriting platforms to 19 insurance companies and MGAs around the world. RDT is exploring new technologies such as voice, as well as creating its own consumer app.  Matthew finds out how (and why) Mark founded the company,  what they are working on today and exactly why one of their clients is responsible for 50 million calls on the RDT server each day. RDT is one of the many InsTech London corporate members. Find out more about what we are up to at www.instech.london We're delighted to be bringing you this podcast with support from the Insurance Insider. For a free copy follow this link -  http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/  

We're back in the Lloyd's Lab for this week's episode talking to Amrit Santhirasenan. Amrit, a qualified actuary,  founded Hyperexponential having become frustrated by the lack of available tools he could use to run his actuarial models. Previously head of pricing and analytics at Tokio Marine Kiln, Amrit founded Hyperexponetial (or HX) in 2017 and already has clients and revenue. Matthew finds out from Amrit how his time in the Lloyd's Lab Cohort 3 has been accelerating the company's success in finding supporters and clients in Lloyd's and beyond.  Look out for our write up of this interview coming soon, and save time from taking your own notes by reading the transcript on www.instech.london (available a few days after our podcasts are released). The Instech London podcasts continue to be supported by Insurance Insider, one of the best and fastest providers and insights of information for the global commercial, speciality and reinsurance markets. Get your free copy here --  http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/

One of our most lively and most popular events so far - in this, the second half of our "Reverse Pitch" event from The Steelyard that we held on 24th September, Matthew Grant is on stage talking to Hayley Maynard, Chief of Staff to the CUO of Allianz ACGS and Karl Stanley VP Technology Ventures, Renaissance Re. Two great guests from two of the world's biggest insurers.  You can find out highlights from every speaker on the night - and what help they are looking for - on the event section of www.instech.london Enjoyed this? If you haven't found the first half yet - it's Episode 49.  Please do drop us a line if you like what we are up to - or what to know how you can get involved with InsTech London (made in the UK but connecting globally) to [email protected]. And we are still offering our Insurance Insider free copy - more details here  -  http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/

We were delighted to be able to find some time with Rob Galbraith whilst he was over in London recently. Rob is well known for his commentary on insurance, insurtech and all things related.  Join us to find out why Rob, author of the recent insurance bestseller "The end of insurance as we know it", has been called "the most interesting man in insurance" and "the WD40 of insurance".  Matthew and Rob compare notes about the latest issues in insurance and technology, mutual friends, finding information and other hot topics from around the world. (Note - since we recorded this, Amazon lowered their UK price of Rob's book in line with the US price) This is a special mid-week release. Too much to talk about and not enough time!  Check us out at www.instech.london. And not forgetting the free Insurance Insider issue to all our listeners. Download it from http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/

The summer is over and we're back in the Steelyard for our autumn season of evening events. There are many opportunities to find out what technology companies offering product and services to insurance have to offer, but how often do we know what the insurers really want? In this episode, from the first half of our Reverse Pitch event on 24 September,  Robin Merttens is on stage with our guests, finding out what they are up to and where they need help. Part Two coming soon. Who needs Vegas? Jamie Garratt, Head of Underwriting Strategy - Talbot (2:00) Madeleine Durand, Senior Strategy Manager -  Bupa (8.25) Jason Smith, Deputy Lead, Data Exchange - Experian (12.35) And our very own Paolo Cuomo in his new role as head of Strategy at Brit (18:00) No need to take notes - get the summary of what we heard at the event, and all 20 requests for help from our speakers in the article on the event specific section on  our website www.instech.london. You will also find photos from the event and the full agenda. Thanks to PKF Littlejohn for sponsorship of this event, and to Insurance Insider for their support for these podcasts. This autumn our podcasts are being supported by Insurance Insider and they are offering a free issue to all of our listeners. Download it from http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/    

The curse of "legacy" is often blamed for lack of innovation in established insurance companies - but is that really the problem? Instanda was founded 7 years ago and has proved it can successfully build new systems for insurers and work alongside, and with, legacy and still deploy its solutions quickly and relatively cheaply. With 40 companies drawn mostly from P & C, Instanda is now branching out in Life & Health. Trevor Davis joined Instanda last year from Swiss Re. In this episode he talks to Matthew Grant about how the company builds its products, why it has been successful, the new opportunities arising in the Life & Health space and what the future for System Integrators may look like.  This autumn our podcasts are being supported by Insurance Insider and they are offering a free issue to all of our listeners. Download it from http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/ To find out what we are up to at InsTech London - our future events, past events and our weekly news, go to www.instech.london    

Liberty Mutual is the world's fifth-largest property & casualty insurer. James Slaughter is responsible for setting the overall underwriting strategy -  which includes pricing, risk appetite, distribution and innovation - for the global commercial & specialty lines business of Liberty Mutual. Matthew talks to James about what drew him to insurance and the challenges of bringing change and new technology to the underwriting of large and complex risks. Topics include lessons to be learnt from personal lines, creating an internal culture of innovation and how the market will evolve in the next few years.  More information on James and the head of innovation partnerships, Premal Gohil  To find out what we are up to at InsTech London, our past and future events go to www.instech.london For your free copy of Insurance Insider go to  http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/  

A short episode this week as Matthew and Robin talk about what they have been up to recently, the latest trends catching their eye and what the autumn has in store for InsTech London and our community of 4,000 people supported by 80 corporate members.  Find out about our events, members and views at www.Instech.London. To get more pithy insights and early notification of our forthcoming events try our weekly newsletter We're delighted to have Insurance Insider as our sponsor for the next couple of months. Sign up for your free issue here http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/  

The finance teams in insurance companies often struggle as much as others when it comes to bringing together multiple sources of data, and identifying key business metrics. Improving efficiency is one of the foundations of the "Future of Lloyd's" strategy and the 3rd cohort in the Lloyd's Lab brings together scale-ups rather than start-ups. Phinsys, founded in 2010, was chosen because of its record in providing systems to speed up and improve reporting capabilities to leading insurers. In this week's episode Matthew is back in the Lab talking to CRO Stuart Conibear and Marketing Director Ian Jones about what the company does, why they joined the Lab, and their experience so far.  We also hear why Phinsys became a corporate member of InsTech London and what gets Stuart and his team to give up his evenings to join us at our events.  We're delighted to bring you this podcast with the support of Insurance Insider. We know from experience that Insurance Insider readers are the first to hear about the latest global wholesale specialty and reinsurance breaking news. InsTech London listeners are eligible to download the latest issue of Insurance Insider free from http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/ To learn more about InsTech London, our members, and past and future events  find us at https://www.instech.london/ Link to Pedius, mentioned by Ian, here 

Bevis Tetlow returned earlier this year to his roots in technology, joining Imaginera as CEO after having spent 13 years as a reinsurance underwriter for Hiscox. Prior to leaving Hiscox, Bevis was chair of North American underwriting for Bermuda and London operations of Hiscox Re, as well as Head of Underwriting Systems.  The debate continues about whether insurers can evolve and innovate on their own, will become increasingly reliant on third parties for new ideas, or perhaps even disappear. Matthew talks to a former colleague from the early days of catastrophe modelling about what reinsurers really need, how to give it to them and what blind spots still remain for property reinsurers. Bevis reveals that despite 30 years since catastrophe models first emerged there are still lots of opportunities for companies that have data to solve problems for re/insurers that the models still can't solve (fraud being one).  Bevis signed up bespoke software developer Imaginera to build the reinsurance underwriting system for Hiscox. He has now hung up his underwriting pen to join founder Toby Crawford in expanding Imaginera's business in Bermuda and the UK. More information on Imaginera here - http://www.imaginera.co.uk/ We're delighted to bring you this podcast with the support of Insurance Insider. We know from experience that Insurance Insider readers are the first to hear about the latest global wholesale specialty and reinsurance breaking news. InsTech London listeners are eligible to download the latest issue of Insurance Insider free from http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/ To learn more about InsTech London, our members, and past and future events you can find us at https://www.instech.london/

Mark Geoghegan started his career as a broker in 1992 and has run Insurance Insider since 2008. In that period he has got to know all of the leaders in the London market and further afield. Over the years he has seen the industry try, but frequently fail, to adopt technology to try to mprove efficiency, decision making and the flow of information around the market. Mark and his team are frequent visitors to our InsTech London evening events. In addition to reporting on the core insurance activities, and ups and downs of the market Insurance Insider also follow what is happening amongst the new entrants and the established re/insurers.  In this episode Mark talks to Matthew about the changes he has been seeing in recent years that are making him more optimistic that finally even Lloyd's, and the traditional specialty insurance market, is going to be able to fully embrace new opportunities in data, tech and analytics. We also find out why the reinsurance market heads off to Monte Carlo in mid-september each year and a hint of the themes that will be being discussed in the next few weeks. At InsTech London we have been keen readers of the Insurance Insider for many years, and so we are delighted that this episode also marks the first of the forthcoming series that is being sponsored by the Insurance Insider.  As an InsTech London podcast listener you are now able to download a free copy of Insurance Insider here - http://campaigns.insuranceinsider.com/instechlondon/ Mark Geoghegan, and the Insurance Insiders' New York correspondent, Bernard Goyder, also feature on InsTech London podcasts numbers 17 and 30 respectively. To learn more about InsTech London, our members, and past and future events you can find us at https://www.instech.london/      

In this episode Matthew Grant talks to Adrian Jones who heads up Ventures & Strategic Partnerships at SCOR Global P&C, the #5 global reinsurer.  Adrian's P&C Ventures team at SCOR invests in carriers, MGAs, and technology companies.  P&C Ventures, one of the more active VCs in re/insurance, is fully embedded within SCOR and invests in support of the core business. Adrian is also a well-known speaker and writer on innovation and technology in insurance via LinkedIn.  To learn more about the growing InsTech London community of people from insurance, technology, start-ups, scale-ups and investors - take a look at www.instech.london  

Paolo catches up with Matthew and Robin to check in on the summer's activity in tech, data and analytics. Are insurers finally making meaningful moves to being digital, or is it still mostly digital lipstick on a legacy pig? The three InsTech London Partners talk about what's been grabbing their attention in August including Convex, Floodflash and Google Cloud and preview what's coming up next for InsTech London's autumn season. Find out more at www.instech.london          

Finding a new area of risk to model is a great way to get attention as an insurtech start-up, particularly when the founders have a deep history in insurance, analytics and technology.  In this episode Matthew talks to the founders of Describe Data - Michael Crawford, Gerard de Vere and Mick Cooney about their experience of being on the Lloyd's Lab cohort 2. After day two Michael already realised that "it was going to be amazing". When we spoke they were coming up to the end of their time in the lab and they weren't disappointed by what they had been through.  They built a prototype in 3 weeks for a product to help underwriters assess their D & O (Directors' and Officers' liability) risk. During their time at the lab they had 10 - 15 companies from Lloyd's engaging with them and finish the cohort with a strong pipeline of opportunities.  The Describe Data team are usually based in Dublin, but travel to London frequently. Gerald De Vere is a founder member of Insurtech Ireland, which like InsTech London is a member of the Global InsurTech Alliance (GITA). More information on our events and everything else we are up to at InsTech London at www.instech.london      

So what is Insurtech as a service? In these highlights from the second half of our 8th July event recorded in front of a packed room Matthew talks to Stewart Reeder of Hitachi (13:45) and three more of their partners, Damion Thompson Insurance Lead at Google Cloud,  Michael Flanagan, CEO and founder of Xtract (17:15), Craig Olivier, VP of tech stuff at Genasys (22.10). We continue our discussion (from podcast 38) about how Hitachi identify which companies to work with and put in front of their insurance clients and how they assess them as fit for purpose to ensure ease of integration, and value add for their Insurtech partners. Google sees a lot of data. The Google Cloud team don’t have access to that data, but they do see trends. 15% of the search terms each year are entirely new, and customers are becoming more and more inquisitive and impatient. Damion talks about Google Cloud’s start up programme and other ways of getting involved with them. More information can be found here or contact Damion directly via Linkedin. Xtract is radically improving the FNOL (First Notification of Loss) process for quick reporting and rigorous assessment of the loss using telematics to enable the claims handler to get notified of a loss within 5 seconds of it happening. Michael and Stewart reveal how the two companies met and why and how they are working together. Craig Olivier talks about what Genasys has done to be successful whilst operating in the competitive space of policy admin systems,  the benefit of having a REST API to enable full integration with Insurtech across the value chain and the work they are doing with Hitachi.  And how did they set up a third party claim solution in two days? Thanks to Hitachi for sponsoring the evening. The first half of the event with more of Hitachi’s partners, as well as Munich Re and Kasko can be heard on episode 38 Full information on this and all our event, including a write up of the companies speaking, a full transcript and photos of the evening can be found on the event page on our website www.instech.london

Another fast moving series of chats with more leaders from insurance, technology and data. In this episode, the first half of our 8th July evening at The SteelYard, Robin investigates how Hitachi (2:00), the 7th largest technology group in the world, is making it easier for established insurers to work with the emerging providers of data for trains, buildings and a whole lot more. Serif Otterburn, Business Development Manager, and Insurance Subject Matter Expert  “Everything Hitachi builds, from trains to medical equipment, requires insurance. A lot of insurers use historical data to calculate risk, but Hitachi is using its expertise in IoT to assist insurers to develop newer better risk models". Joining Robin and Serif are Chris Gill from QBE (7:50) and Stephen Chadwick from Shepherd (16:00). Munich Re Digital Partners (22:00) are well known for supporting a whole range of new MGAs and technology companies with capacity and sometimes investment. We get a peek behind the kimono at how they are getting on. In the words of Mark Dennis, European CEO "We’ve met with about a thousand InsurTech start-ups in the last three years. To date, we have about twenty live and wish ultimately to work with about fifty. Our job is to provide the scalability to get them to market as quickly as possible as InsurTech services.” Kasko (34:20) was on stage at InsTech London 4 years ago at one of our earliest events, CEO Nick Sühr returns to talk about the work they are doing today with over 15 insurers providing plug-and-play ready solutions, enabling insurers to turn insurance products from idea or paper to digital in a few weeks. The second half of this event follows in episode 39 with more from Hitachi and their partners. For more details on the companies speaking at the event, and transcripts from all our recent events go to the dedicated event page  See the last 2 years history of InsTech London events and profiles with many of our speakers and sign up for our newsletter at www.instech.london

Graham Elliott describes Azur as a "Managing Digital Agency" (MDA). He founded the business in 2015, providing High Net Worth insurance for clients of UK brokers, in partnership with AIG. Matthew Grant and Graham talk about the challenges of becoming a full digital insurer and other topics such as offering quotes based on only 5 questions, sources of data and the role of brokers.   You can learn more about Azur at https://www.azuruw.com/ And find out what we are up to at InsTech London at https://www.instech.london/

A double bill this week. Matthew talks to Robin about his experience of visiting the DIA Amsterdam conference this year with the highlights, lowlights and his meeting with the rising stars from insurtech in Japan. Dan White, Managing Partner at Ninety Consulting talks to us about some of the themes emerging from their white paper "Examining the direct relationship between insurance innovation and company value" We discuss topics such as why do insurers appear to compare so badly with other industries when it comes to innovation spend - is that real or just differences in the data? Which is better, lots of small innovation or a few large projects? And a lot more. We are pleased to have Ninety Consulting as one of InsTech London's gold sponsors in 2019. Follow us at InsTech.London for all past and future events. Sign up here to get our views on what is happening in insurance, technology and all things related via the Instech London newsletter.  

In this episode Matthew Grant chats to Sean Ringsted about how Chubb is introducing innovation across the company and he gives some tips to help anyone starting up a new business aimed at selling to insurers.  Sean is Executive Vice President for Chubb Group reporting directly into CEO Evan Greenberg. Sean leads Chubb’s digital efforts aimed at transforming the company into a digitally integrated organization.  Sean has 25 years of experience in the insurance industry.  He was appointed Chief Digital Officer in 2017 and has served as the company’s Chief Risk Officer since 2008, prior to ACE’s acquisition of Chubb in 2016.  Chubb provides insurance in property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, and life insurance. The company has a presence in 54 countries and territories as well as Lloyd's and is the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer. Chubb is a corporate member of Instech London. Matthew and Sean discuss what it means to innovate in a large company, how Sean keeps up to date with the latest information, the role of Linkedin, and the future of IOT for insurance.  Check us out at Instech London to see our range of past of future events and get access to a transcript for this interview.  

With all the talk of the use of AI and algorithms in insurance innovation we thought we'd better check out some of the potential pitfalls and challenges that need to be considered with using algorithms in financial services. Robin discusses what to do, and what to avoid with Nicholas Berry and Peter McBurney from Norton Fulbright Rose and Wan Heath from Barnett Waddingham. Who'd have thought regulation could be quite so much fun... Learn more about InsTech London at https://www.instech.london/

More fun from our Algorithm and AI event at the Steelyard on 3rd June in this, our selected highlights from the second half of the evening. We covered the first half in episode 31. Now its Robin Merttens turn up on stage talking to three of the leaders from new and growing companies servicing the insurance market telling us how they are making it real in the world of algorithms. Silvi Wompa, Chief Underwriting Officer,  ChAI (1:30) e2Value offers products to assist with property asset valuation. Its tools can be used for collateral asset valuation, risk management, and predictive modeling. e2Value is the SaaS provider delivering valuations for residential, commercial, and farm and ranch properties in the US and Canada. James Davies, CEO and Founder,  We Predict (18:00) Munich Re backed We Predict use predictive analytics and its proprietary dataset Deepview to help vehicle manufacturers make better purchasing and engineering decisions, and to insure their associated risks.  Learn more about what we are up to at InsTech London, including details of our all our events from last two years and information on our next events at www.instech.london And if you enjoyed this podcast, we've 32 more already released waiting for you...

Dickie is CEO and co-founder of the open source catastrophe modelling platform Oasis. After a career in reinsurance broking, Dickie has spent the last 8 years creating a way to help insurers get access to emerging, niche and academic data & models. Today Oasis LMF is used by many of the London market re/insurers to price and manage global catastrophe risk. Matthew and Dickie discuss the history of the company, catastrophes and other themes relevant to all data and technology companies such as interoperability, fund raising and recruiting the best people. Find out more about data, technology, insurtech and much more at www.instech.london Oasis LMF is at https://oasislmf.org/

This week’s podcast features edited highlights of Matthew chatting on stage with leading figures from AIG, Cytora, WhenFresh and Polar Capital at our live event in The Steelyard. Everyone’s talking about AI, but what’s really going on? Questions we asked included how far has AI really got in insurance, what are the regulatory issues, how to convince an insurer that the results are validated, how to tell the quality of a company’s AI credentials, where do insurers stand relative to the rest of the world, and a lot more. Our guests talk about the ways they are using AI and Algorithms in their own businesses and how they distinguish reality from hype. Tips for assessing the quality of a company that is claiming to use AI, and thoughts on how to encourage more data scientists to join the industry. What is the Moneyball effect and is your algorithm smart enough and humble enough to admit when it doesn't know?  The usual buzzing crowd and experts on stage made for another great evening. Reza Khorshidi, Chief Scientist, Global AIG (1:20) Hamzah Chaudhary, Director of Deployment, Cytora (10:45) Mark Cunningham, CEO and Founder, WhenFresh (21:10) Nick Martin, Fund Manager, Polar Capital (29:00)   Both Reza and Nick recommend the book: Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence by Ajay Agrawal  

The team from Insurance Insider are regular attendees at our InsTech London events. Bernard Goyder, senior reporter for Insurance Insider was previously covering the London insurance technology and insurtech space but since April he has been based in New York. In this episode Matthew talks to Bernard about what he's learning about the difference between writing insurance in the US and the UK, and why this constrains innovation in personal lines. Despite the regulatory challenges Hartford has developed into a major hub for insurance innovation and Bernard was there recently meeting the insurance commissionaire. He reviews some of the new companies he likes along with an update on Lemonade and Bernard's own experience of trying to buy renters insurance.  For more information about InsTech London and our past and future events, find us at www.InsTech.London Follow us on at twitter @InsTech_London