InsurTech start-ups invited to compete for £50k prize in 2025 Insurathon

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has now launched the eighth edition of its annual Insurathon competition, which supports start-up and scale-up technology businesses pursuing technological advancements and innovation in the insurance sector.

The firm has now provided in excess of £275,000 of pro bono advice and investment support to start-ups through the Insurathon, since its 2017 launch.

The applicants who are selected as finalists will compete for a prize, consisting of:

£25,000 of pro bono UK legal and regulatory advice from lawyers within Norton Rose Fulbright’s market-leading corporate and regulatory insurance practice
A potential equity investment of £25,000 

All applicants will benefit from a one-to-one 45-minute pro bono clinic provided by our lawyers who cover legal and regulatory issues across areas such as corporate, restructuring, commercial arrangements, intellectual property, data privacy, employment and labour and financial services regulation. All finalists will be eligible for three 45-minute pro bono legal clinics during the competition day.

The firm is interested in seeing proposals from scale-up and start-up businesses that are developing technology or propositions in the following areas:

• Insurance offerings that seek to digitise some or all parts of a particular insurance value chain using technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, internet of things (IoT), analytics, and/or smart contract technology
• The commercial (re)insurance market across a broad range of capabilities, such as platforms, augmented underwriting, machine learning, claims, dynamic pricing, active risk management, data and analytics
• Novel insurance solutions and platforms, whether running off blockchain or similar technology, a secondary trading platform or an information sharing platform for (re)insurance
• Products or services that challenge the existing (re)insurance proposition and way of doing business

The application deadline is Thursday 6 February 2025. Businesses interested in applying can find more information, including details on how to apply, on the Norton Rose Fulbright website.

This year’s finalists will be announced on Friday 7 February 2025 and the Insurathon will take place on Thursday 13 February 2025. Previous winners of the firm’s Insurathon include JustParent, InsurX, ARMD, Anansi, Riskbook (now Supercede), Concirrus, Pluto Travel, Mackenzie Intelligence Services, Flock Cover and Nexus Mutual.

Gilbert Harrap, CEO of InsurX, said:

"The advice and support we've received from Norton Rose Fulbright off the back of winning their Insurathon competition has tangibly helped us turbocharge our growth as the independent digital exchange for the corporate and specialty insurance market. Norton Rose Fulbright's expertise in supporting multinational insurance corporations all the way down to ambitious start-ups like us is unrivalled."