Walking LatAm tech firms and insurers to the altar
Like banks, insurance companies see partnering with agile tech firms as an efficient way to bring innovative products to market quickly.
In Latin America, there is a vibrant tech startup scene - and a pool of traditional insurers looking to build their digital muscles.
Against this backdrop, Digital Insurance LatAm - which provides strategy consulting services in the areas of insurance innovation and digital transformation and which brings together stakeholders from the respective worlds of insurance and technology - is holding Insurtech LatAm Forum in partnership with events firm IMS. The conference, taking place on March 27 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, will act as a regional collaborative space for tech startups and established players from the insurance sphere.
Digital Insurance LatAm founder Hugues Bertin tells BNamericas more about the event and regional insurtech trends.
BNamericas: Why are you holding this event and what are some of your key objectives?
Bertin: The key aim of Insurtech Latam Forum is to promote insurance innovation in order to bring a better service to insurers, cover new risks and incorporate new generations of consumers and underserved people. To achieve this, we believe in the necessity of accompanying the emergence of a collaborative insurtech ecosystem with traditional market players.
In Argentina, and in Latin America, there exists, on one side, a vibrant tech startup ecosystem, and on the other a segment of traditional players trying to accelerate their transformation and innovation processes. The forum will constitute a bridge that joins these two worlds. Argentina's tech startup ecosystem is one of the most important in the region.
To achieve this, IMS and Digital Insurance LatAm aim to do the following: contribute to the development of an insurtech ecosystem, help raise awareness of how new technology is evolving, and promote real, collaborative integration of all the players of the new insurance market (insurers, brokers, agents, investment funds, accelerators, IT providers and consultants, among others.)
In addition, we're looking to constitute a digital agenda for the future of the market. To achieve this, we'll organize Insurtech Pitch Day - the first initiative of its kind in Argentina - which will involve insurance watchdog SSN chief Juan Pazo. In this segment [of the conference] five insurtechs will pitch to a panel of professionals from the industry and the wider business world. This will be a milestone that will boost the participation of future insurance industry leaders.
BNamericas: What insurtech trends are you noticing in LatAm?
Bertin: To answer this, I think we must understand what we are referring to when we talk of 'insurtech.' We define it as a tech startup that has a degree of participation in the value chain, or it could have a 100% stake, in which case it is known as a 'full-stack insurer' or a 'neo-insurer'. From this perspective, it is possible to identify players that manage insurance portfolios, as well as actors who do don't, under the insurtech concept.
In Latin America, the insurtechs that exist, or are emerging, cover all parts of the value chain: client acquisition (aggregator, online broker, managing general agent), the back end (robotic process automation services, digitalization, drones, advanced analytics to control risk), prevention or value-added services based on internet of things (known as telematics in the mobility ecosystem), even optimization of human resource processes. Of course, there are full-stacks, which are insurers with a license under the B2C model, like Youse, Crabi or iúnigo or peer-to-peer insurers like Wesura.
Today, you could say that we're two to three years behind, if we compare ourselves to the global leaders. From this, we can imagine that, in two to three years, we'll see startups like Lemonade, Zhong An, Trov or Oscar in the region, or even before.
BNamericas: Finally, in what specific ways can insurtechs help traditional insurers?
Bertin: We believe there is a very important opportunity in the market. Fifteen years ago, on average, it cost US$1mn to launch a startup. Today, with US$50,000, you get a team of entrepreneurs who can remedy insurers' pains through insurtechs. For example, how to automate my back office, how to stand out from the competition, how to start handling the internet of things, which is going to be a disruptor in the world of risk. How to maintain recurring contact points with policyholders, and much more.
However, we also believe that insurers have to help entrepreneurs by giving them greater space and collaborating with them to learn about their flexibility and their innovations in order to gradually incorporate them into their processes.
To sum up, Insurtech Latam Forum 2019 is a great bet on the collaborative ecosystem becoming a reality in our region.
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