Lloyd’s Lab picks new insurtechs to develop COVID-19, systemic risks response

Lloyd’s Lab, the experimental development hub for Lloyd’s of London, has unveiled its fifth cohort of ten insurtech start-ups focused on providing solutions to support the market to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new teams will join Praedicat, Metabiota and Dialogue, the three teams already selected in June, to help fast-track the market's response to the pandemic and other systemic risks.

The insurtech start-ups will focus on three key themes - data and models; new insurance products and markets; and response to COVID-19. They will be looking at: new types of insurance to support the COVID-19 response; help Lloyd's market assess COVID-19 risks; and help Lloyd’s customers adapt to a changing workplace.

“This cohort of InsurTechs will play an important role in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to help us develop the new models and insurance products of the future," said Trevor Maynard, head of innovation at Lloyd’s. "We will undoubtedly need new products and services for insurers to deliver confidence and security against future waves of this pandemic and other systemic risks of the scale we have seen in 2020. I’m thrilled to have the best InsurTech’s across the globe join the Lloyd’s Lab and look forward to seeing the progress they make. Lloyd’s has thrived on its purpose of sharing risk and it's as important now as it has ever been to combine minds and build a braver world.”

Lloyd’s said it received more than 140 applications from across the world for the fifth cohort of the Lloyd’s Lab, which will begin on September 7, 2020. It will be the second completely virtual Lloyd’s Lab cohort.

In July, the Lloyd’s Lab ran its first ‘Fusion’ programme, a new three-day event designed to test early-stage start-up ideas aimed at dealing with COVID-19 and other systemic risks.

In the first four cohorts, start-ups, entrepreneurs and businesses have presented ideas ranging from live-streaming drones to event-based parametric insurance solutions for catastrophic flooding and on-demand insurance for the gig economy.

The insurtechs that will become part of the Lloyd's Lab cohort five include:

Berlin, Germany-based RYSKEX, which provides a blockchain-based ecosystem for Alternative Rysk Transfers and innovative insurance solutions, with a focus on uninsurable risks in today's insurance environment.

UK-based Hivemind Technologies that provides a software platform for managing human-in-the-loop data preparation. Its newest product, AGORA, is a tool for eliciting and aggregating expert judgements using a prediction market mechanism.

Geollect, an agile geospatial intelligence and analysis company, providing insights for decision support to a network of global clients in the defence, maritime insurance and cruise industries. It is based in Bristol, UK.

KnowRisk, a London-based consortium of companies bringing the insurance and audit industries together for the first time. The platform builds a digital twin of site and supply chain risk by combining insurance, audit and internal company data.

New York-based Predata, an AI company focused on uncovering predictive behaviours in online activity. The company has built a global comprehensive predictive analytics platform for geopolitical risk, enabling customers with global exposure to discover, quantify, and act upon dynamic shifts in online attention.

Another New York-based start-up Thimble, a business insurance startup known for its monthly and on-demand policies. The company is developing a low-limit, first-line-of-defence, parametric contingent business interruption coverage to protect SMBs from COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Blink Parametric, based in Ireland, is focused on parametric insurance innovation and transforming the complex products of its insurance and insurtech clients into simple, intuitive, real-time, online services via its customisable platform.

HazardHub, a provider of peril risk and property characteristics in the US, allowing insurers to better understand the risk of a property before committing to an underwriting decision.

Colorado Springs, US-based Hailios, an IoT and data analytics company that provides insurers with real-time weather data on severe convective storms and has an ability to sense multiple characteristics of hailstorms.

Finally, Cape Town, South Africa-based Inclusivity Solutions, which designs, builds, operates and innovates digital insurance solutions that enable financial inclusion and address the protection gap in emerging markets. They partner with mobile operators, banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions to deliver simple and affordable insurance cover through mobile phones.