Lloyd’s Lab, an incubator for startups in the re/insurance sector at Lloyd’s of London, will be continuing and actively focusing on pandemic solutions.
Last month it announced the latest cohort of InsurTech disruptors that will join the Lloyd’s Lab innovation accelerator programme. The new Lab teams will join Praedicat, Metabiota and Dialogue; three teams specially selected in June to work on the market’s COVID-19 response.
Start-ups could be essential in providing the innovation to help recovery, says GlobalData.
They also added that it is undoubtedly a positive for the insurance industry as Lloyd’s Lab aim to help start-up companies.
Ben Carey-Evans, who is the Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “The dramatic fall of global insurtech deals in 2020 is a shock after it grew by over 100% in both 2019 and 2018. The 2020 figure is just up to July, so the scale of decline will be reduced by the end of the year, however, GlobalData still expects 2020 to show a substantial reduction on 2019.”
Lloyd’s said the final ten companies were selected from 140 applicants, which highlights that new ideas and innovation is still present in the insurance market, despite trying conditions.
Carey-Evans added: “All ten start-ups are looking to offer digital solutions and data analytics, as opposed to being consumer facing. While insurers may not be looking to invest large sums at present due to pressure on profitability, successful insurtechs like these could help increase process efficiency and gain better insights from the wealth of customer data they hold,
“Insurtechs merging with incumbents, as opposed to challenging them, is a long-running theme in insurance, and it seems this is set to continue. Start-ups would struggle immensely to underwrite premiums, especially in the current climate, but their digital and analytics expertise could be priceless to larger companies.”
