Norton Rose Fulbright, MS Amlin and Eos Venture Partners announce Insurathon 2018 winners

Norton Rose Fulbright, MS Amlin and Eos Venture Partners are delighted to announce the winners and results of Insurathon 2018, a start-up and innovative business-focused pitch event.

The Insurathon, which supports innovative technology and businesses in the insurance sector, took place at London offices of MS Amlin on November 2.

The event was judged by a five-strong panel, which included

• Paolo Cuomo, principal, Boston Consulting Group
• Sam Evans, founding partner, Eos Venture Partners
• Raj Karia, head of corporate, M&A and securities, Europe, Middle East and Asia, Norton Rose Fulbright
• Sabine van der Linden, managing director, StartUp Bootcamp
• Andrew Wright, global managing director, Marine & Aviation, MS Amlin

When considering the finalists for the Insurathon 2018 pitch event, the judges put an emphasis on the following

• Genuine insurance-related innovation.
• Prospects for requirement for interesting and challenging legal or regulatory advice.
• Maturity of concept.
• Team and execution capability.

Prizes included

• Overall best pitch and the Insurathon 2018 trophy.
• The opportunity to collaborate with global specialty insurer and reinsurer MS Amlin in a proof of concept or to co-develop a minimum viable product.
• The opportunity for funding of a discretionary amount from Eos Venture Partners, a global strategic venture capital fund focused exclusively on insurance.
• Up to £25,000 of UK legal and regulatory advice from global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

Concirrus won overall best pitch and the Insurathon 2018 trophy for its intuitive software platform, Quest, which leverages big data and machine learning to give marine insurers new and more insightful risk data.

The judges awarded start-ups Mackenzie Intelligence Services and Pluto a share of Norton Rose Fulbright’s prize fund of up to £25,000 of UK legal and regulatory advice.

Mackenzie Intelligence Services provides real time intelligence from satellites and other geospatial and IoT data sources for claims assessment purposes. Pluto is seeking to revolutionise the millennial insurance market by seeking to acquire customers through more relevant channels such as social media and simplifying buying and claims processes. 

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

• CargoSnap
• Concirrus
• Digital Fineprint
• Describe Data
• Felcana
• Glass AI
• McKenzie Intelligence Services
• Pluto
• RightIndem
• Sibyl AI

All finalists taking part also had the benefit of 45 minute workshop clinics hosted by teams from Norton Rose Fulbright, MS Amlin, Eos Venture Partners, InsTech London and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Nicholas Berry, a partner in Norton Rose Fulbright’s corporate insurance team who leads the London InsurTech practice, commented: “All ten finalists gave fantastic pitches. It’s been great to work with MS Amlin and Eos to put this event together. Mackenzie Intelligence Services and Pluto are at important stages in their development as businesses. We are looking forward to being able to help them develop by providing both legal advice and sector insight.”

Madeline Bailey, Head of Strategic Initiatives at MS Amlin, commented: “We were delighted by the quality of all ten pitches at the Insurathon and strength of the finalist propositions. Events such as these are important as a means to identifying ways to innovate commercial and specialty (re)insurance using emerging technology and to work with people and organisations from outside the industry to inform and challenge our thinking as our world changes. We would like to thank all those who participated in what was a captivating competition.”

Sam Evans, Founding Partner at Eos Venture Partners, commented: "It was a great day with a number of strong start ups. We congratulate Concirrus on the overall win and look forward to exploring funding opportunities with a number of the participants.”

Previous Insurathon winners include Flock, a start-up offering a drone insurance product and Nexus Mutual, a blockchain-enabled peer-to-peer platform designed around a tokenised discretionary mutual structure. 

For further information please contact:

Louise Nelson, Senior PR Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7444 5086; Mob: +44 (0)7909 684 893
louise.nelson@nortonrosefulbright.com

Notes for editors:

Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm providing the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. The firm has more than 4,000 lawyers and other legal staff based in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.

Recognized for its industry focus, Norton Rose Fulbright is strong across all the key industry sectors: financial institutions; energy; infrastructure, mining and commodities; transport; technology and innovation; and life sciences and healthcare. Through its global risk advisory group, the firm leverages its industry experience with its knowledge of legal, regulatory, compliance and governance issues to provide clients with practical solutions to the legal and regulatory risks facing their businesses.

Norton Rose Fulbright operates in accordance with its global business principles of quality, unity and integrity, aiming to provide the highest possible standard of legal service in each of its offices and to maintain that level of quality at every point of contact.

Norton Rose Fulbright Verein, a Swiss verein, helps coordinate the activities of Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not itself provide legal services to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities worldwide, including London, Houston, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johannesburg. For more information, see nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.

MS Amlin

MS Amlin is a leading global (re)insurer, part of the global top-10 insurance group MS&AD, with operations in the Lloyd’s, UK, Continental European and Bermudian markets. With a 300-year record and c.2,100 people in 26 locations worldwide, we deliver continuity for businesses facing the most complex and demanding risks. Our role places us at the forefront of the Property & Casualty, Marine & Aviation and Reinsurance markets.

Eos Venture Partners

Eos Venture Partners is a global independent Strategic Venture Capital Fund focused exclusively on InsurTech, investing in early and growth stage technology businesses that accelerate innovation and transformation across the insurance industry and value chain. Eos focuses exclusively on InsurTech and was founded in 2016 to bridge the “digital chasm” between InsurTech start-ups and traditional (re)insurance companies. Investors in the Eos fund, EVP I, are typically from the insurance sector, forming a close strategic relationship with the Eos team to capture both strategic and financial value from the innovation and technology change in the insurance industry. See more at: www.eosventurepartners.com