Accelerator is rocketing Connecticut’s IFS sector into the digital age
HBJ File Photo
Entrepreneurs from 10 insurance-technology startups (shown above in a strategy session) participated in the second annual Hartford InsurTech Hub accelerator program.
Insurance-technology entrepreneurs from around the world have flocked to Hartford’s new InsurTech program to be close to the region’s major insurers.
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Hartford has historically been known as the “Insurance Capital of the World.” But these days, Connecticut’s capital city is firmly focused on the future, pouring considerable effort into becoming Innovation Central for the insurance and financial services industries.
A case in point is Hartford’s InsurTech Hub, an entity that describes itself as “a collaboration of insurance carriers, City of Hartford representatives and community stakeholders, all focused on industry evolution through collaboration and innovation.”
Powered by the global StartupBootcamp, the local accelerator program gives entrepreneurs from around the world the resources and support they need to change the face of the insurance industry – from the way consumers and businesses select and purchase insurance to the way they use it. These startups are also launching innovation tools and platforms that will allow insurance companies to connect with and engage both current and potential customers – and to better meet their clients’ evolving needs.
Dawn LeBlanc, managing director of Hartford InsurTech Hub, says the initiative, now in its second year, recently graduated its second cohort of 10 young companies – “the best and the brightest” of the 5,000 reviewed and the 500 interviewed to take part in the 90-day program.
LeBlanc said most of the products or proposals created by these startups either prevent existing risks or help the insurance industry provide coverage in new ways, or for new types of risks. “All of that really helps keep those [insurance] companies strong, moving forward, and hopefully remaining in Connecticut – and supporting us [the industry] from an ecosystem perspective.”
And why do these entrepreneurs vie to put their lives on hold for three months and come all the way to Hartford? LeBlanc says it all comes down to critical mass and the opportunities they perceive here.
“We have over 3,000 people who are involved in some way, shape, or form in the Hartford InsurTech Hub. And so that support – and access to pretty large, well-known insurers here – is the reason why they come. They’re either looking to expand their companies that are located in another state or outside of the U.S., or maybe they had a successful business that wasn’t really focused as much on insurance and now they want to expand on that.”
From the other side of the equation, she said, many insurance companies have been actively seeking out ways to become more innovative to keep up with emerging trends, risks and opportunities, but others have been less proactive or less successful in doing so. The accelerator program is meant not only to assist the startups, but to give insurers access to the most innovative firms that the marketplace has to offer them.
In today’s world, she noted, we have things that never existed before, like drones and Uber. And while society may find these disruptive technology and services extremely useful, they also represent both risk and opportunity from an insurance standpoint.
As things evolve, LeBlanc said, insurers really have to stay on top of new ways of doing things. “Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on a whole lot of opportunities.”
One example is a member of InsurTech Hub’s 2019 cohort – South African company Pineapple – which is tapping into the growing preference for buying goods and services online.
Pineapple offers customers the ability to insure small consumer goods like laptops or phones much more quickly than the conventional insurance model allows.
“You actually just take a picture of it and you can get insurance on it in something like seven seconds,” she said. “The elongated process it usually takes to purchase insurance is really going to shift over time.”
LeBlanc believes Hartford – and its InsurTech Hub – are well-positioned to help spearhead the dynamic shift that is taking place in the insurance industry.
In addition to the vision and buy-in demonstrated by insurers, she said, “we’ve gotten a lot of support from the state, from the mayor of Hartford, and from people in the regulatory offices focused on insurance. I think people realize [tech is] a big driver, industry-wide, but then we’ve also gotten support from some of the other accelerators that are working on new technology. There is overlap in some of those concepts and it’s really become a community around innovation, which is great.”
LeBlanc added that Startup Bootcamp operates under a larger organization called Rainmaking, whose goal is “to really help corporations in whatever they need to do to move their innovation forward – and that does evolve over time. So at some point, we may be moving to do more co-development with startups and insurers to extract the exact solutions that they’re looking for, and develop those in a pretty quick fashion for them,” she said. “Rainmaking has done that for some large companies, like Ikea and Facebook.”
Andrew Mais, Connecticut’s new insurance commissioner, agreed the insurance universe seems to be evolving quickly.
“It used to be considered somewhat of a staid industry, but the pace of change and technology that’s really bringing it into the 21st century is amazing. This is a fascinating time for the industry. To me, we’re at an inflection point,” he said.
Mais said Connecticut is fortunate to have some forward-thinking CEOs who have pushed for and supported the development of an InsurTech hub in Hartford, and who continue to roll up their sleeves to assist innovative startups from across the globe.
“Technology is a tremendous driver for change right now. So is talent. And there’s a natural nexus here. We have tremendous talent and we have the ability to mentor that talent. So somebody in tech may not know insurance but they come here and our insurers are able to mentor them to show them what needs to be done. And that’s really important for the development of InsurTech as a whole.”
He added, “This industry has had the ability and the inclination to look backwards because that’s how we create our tables. You look back and see what happened and think that history will provide you with a guide to the future. And that is important, but this is also an industry that is very much looking towards the future.”
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