Riskbook wins Norton Rose Fulbright Insurathon 2019

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is delighted to announce the winner of Insurathon 2019.

Insurathon is a Norton Rose Fulbright event which supports innovation in the insurance sector. It aims to bring together the finest start-up and scale-up technology businesses looking to develop a business concept in the insurance space.

Riskbook won overall best pitch and was awarded the full £50,000 prize fund. Riskbook is a hyperconnected reinsurance marketplace enabling digitally native brokers to share risks with a worldwide audience of underwriters. The panel of Norton Rose Fulbright judges were impressed with the potential of the platform to transform the (re)insurance placement process.

Norton Rose Fulbright received over 20 applications to participate in the event, which is now in its third successive year.

Nine entrants were selected as finalists to pitch for a prize value of £50,000, consisting of:

• £25,000 by way of an equity investment from Norton Rose Fulbright, subject to contract, diligence and Norton Rose Fulbright Investment Committee’s approval
• £25,000 of pro bono UK legal and regulatory advice from specialist lawyers within Norton Rose Fulbright’s market-leading corporate and regulatory insurance practice

Further details of the event can be found here: www.insurathon.co.uk

The full list of firms who competed in the pitch event included:

• BirdsEyeView
• Caura
• Earthscope
• hlthie
• hyperexponential
• Nayms
• Onceand1
• PORTABL
• Riskbook

All finalists taking part also had the benefit of 45-minute workshop clinics hosted by Norton Rose Fulbright lawyers from the firm’s corporate and regulatory insurance, intellectual property and data privacy teams.

The event was judged by a five-member panel from Norton Rose Fulbright, which included:

• Eva-Maria Barbosa, partner
• James Bateson, partner
• Rod Harrington, chief operating officer
• Jeremy Coleman, head of innovation
• Peter McBurney, head of technology consulting

Nicholas Berry, a corporate and regulatory insurance partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, who leads the Insurathon events, commented:

“We had a record number of applications this year, which indicates that the UK and London continue to be centres for supporting businesses driving innovation in the insurance sector. Our judges were impressed by the calibre of the finalists’ pitches and it’s fantastic to have heard from such a wide range of strong start-ups. We congratulate Riskbook on its win and look forward working with Jerad and the other members of the Riskbook team.”

Jerad Leigh, CEO and co-founder of Riskbook, commented:

“At Riskbook we are building a global reinsurance marketplace that enables brokers to easily share their risks with a worldwide audience of underwriters, who are in turn empowered to search and filter for risks that match their appetite. We are honoured and delighted to have won the support of world-leading law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, whose expertise and international network will help us deliver ‘Reinsurance Reimagined’ for the ever-growing Riskbook community worldwide. We look forward to working together to radically improve the daily lives of reinsurance brokers and underwriters.”

Previous Insurathon winners include Concirrus, Pluto Travel, Mackenzie Intelligence Services, Flock Cover and Nexus Mutual.

The Norton Rose Fulbright global InsurTech team provides clients with transactional advice, as well as counsel on the legal and regulatory challenges and risks related to the deployment of technology in insurance-related transactions and processes.

The multi-disciplinary InsurTech practice, which forms part of the firm’s wider Tier-1 ranked Insurance and FinTech practices, integrates lawyers with a wide range of industry and technical expertise and legal competencies and operates across the globe. Recent experience includes advising some of the world’s leading insurance companies as well as InsurTech start-ups on M&A and investment work, consortia projects and the legal and regulatory issues relating to product design and the deployment of technologies in the insurance value chain.