What:
Spot, a tech startup offering subscription injury insurance, has partnered with Outside Interactive, a creator of active lifestyle content, services, events, and experiences.
Why:
Together, Spot and Outside will help adventure enthusiasts feel safer and more protected on the mountain this season.
How:
- Members of Outside+, Outside’s premier membership, can sign up for Spot insurance, discounted to $90 per year, valued at over $250 a year.
- With its customized “on-the-mountain” injury insurance, Spot will cover the cost of medical bills up to $25K per injury and can be used with or without traditional health insurance.
- Outside+ members are covered while participating in ski, snowboard, mountain bike, rock climbing, and hiking, as well as ski racing activities through SkiReg.com, anywhere in the U.S.
- Outside+ members can get the treatment they need at any licensed physician, hospital, or urgent care clinic.
- Once they receive their first bill, they can file a claim through Spot’s website by taking pictures of the bill on their phones, explaining how they were injured, and answering a few other questions.
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What:
io.insure, the world’s first online mergers and acquisitions (M&A) insurance marketplace for small and medium-sized business (SME) transactions, has launched in Australia.
Why:
The io.insure marketplace will bridge the risk protection gap in the niche M&A segment for SMEs, where there is a scarcity of insurance capacity and inefficient processes within the M&A insurance ecosystem, which is largely focused on higher-value transactions.
How:
- Through existing and new partnerships with advisors, insurance brokers, banks, etc., io.insure will serve as an end-to-end marketplace for the M&A insurance ecosystem.
- It will fulfill the risk management needs of small business owners in Australia, private equity and venture capital firms, and corporate M&A dealmakers.
- io.insure’s SME M&A Insurance (SEMI) will initially provide insurance solutions for smaller M&A transactions up to AUD 50 million and then progress to larger transactions.
- Following the launch in Australia, io.insure will be expanded to North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.
- io.insure will provide Underwriting-as-a-Service (UaaS) support for global and local insurers as well as Lloyd’s syndicates, combining M&A, underwriting expertise, data & technology, and distribution.
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What:
Petriage and Crum & Forster Pet Insurance partner to enhance pet parents’ access to care information with Petriage’s online pet symptom checker and Petriage Live, its 24/7 nurse helpline.
Why:
The partnership will help veterinarians provide seamless, connected care for their clients, including turnkey practice management system integration, so that pet parents can provide the best care for their pets.
How:
- Driven by artificial intelligence and protected by a U.S. patent, Petriage’s veterinarian-validated teletriage symptom analysis tool informs pet parents with 97%-plus accuracy of the urgency for seeking care for their ailing dog or cat, based on information they input about their pet’s symptoms.
- The phone-based Petriage Live consultative triage service provides advice to pet owners any time from a team of licensed veterinary nurses after a pet owner’s use of the symptom checker.
- The service will become available to customers enrolled in the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance and Hartville Pet Insurance programs in early 2022.
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What:
Sundance Strategies, Inc. announced the release of compliant NFTs backed by life settlements — the sale of an existing insurance policy to a third party for a one-time cash payment.
Why:
Enable direct participation in insurance-backed bonds and streamline the delivery of cradle-to-grave insurance products to the masses. Democratize life settlement investments’ access and reach a broader audience.
How:
- The real-world assets backing the NFT’s will be up to $500 million, investment-grade rated life insurance-linked bonds, backed by approximately $850 million of life insurance policies, and nearly $115 million of cash reserves.
- This asset will produce cash flow and net returns to the NFT holder, creating a secure investment, in these volatile times, with all the perks of an NFT held on the blockchain ledger.
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What:
CCC Intelligent Solutions announced CCC Mobile Appraiser Pro, a native app for appraisers to accelerate the claims process by driving efficiency and consistency into field inspections.
Why:
To provide customer-centered solutions that provide ease, speed, and efficiency to the claim experience while improving the overall policyholder experience.
How:
- CCC Mobile Appraiser Pro helps field appraisers make repair and total loss determinations on the spot.
- The app guides the collection of supporting photos and connects to CCC’s AI-powered estimating and valuation tools to speed and simplify the assessment process.
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What:
Rewire has partnered with Qover and insurer AIG to protect its customers in case of accidents at no additional cost.
Why:
By protecting the income of migrants in Europe and their families around the world, this partnership works toward including marginalized populations in our financial systems and therefore reducing inequalities worldwide.
How:
- An outcome of this partnership is the built-in accident insurance, which covers Rewire customers with free plans in 18 countries across Europe.
- Rewire also sees accident insurance as a way to incentivize customer loyalty.
- The embedded solution covers remitters in case of accidental death and dismemberment, providing security for the migrant and their family dependent on their income.
- Rewire customers automatically benefit from the insurance, as long as they transfer at least €200 per calendar month with their Rewire account.
- To submit a claim, users can go to the Rewire website and fill out an online form in minutes.
- Under the policy, the customer or beneficiary receives a one-time payment of up to €5,000 in the event of dismemberment, paralysis, or accidental death.
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What:
Kayak, a travel search engine, has partnered with InsurTech Koala to provide a digitised travel protection platform in Europe.
Why:
Despite travelers seeking financial protection for their pandemic travel, most travel insurance products haven’t adapted to travelers’ needs. About 40% of survey respondents find policies unclear and misleading, and 30% believe policies have complicated claims processes. This partnership aims to make travel insurance fair and simple.
How:
- Koala and Kayak’s partnership will launch KAYAK Flex and KAYAK Comprehensive, powered by Koala, two full digitized travel products integrated into the KAYAK platform.
- KAYAK Flex, available to purchase within three days of booking a trip, provides cancellation protection before departure allowing travelers to receive cash reimbursement if they cancel their trip or decide not to travel.
- Travelers can be refunded up to 70% of their trip price if they cancel their trip up to 4 days before departure, with only travel dates and destination needed.
- KAYAK Flex pays out refunds instantly without the need for complex forms or reasons for cancellations.
- KAYAK Comprehensive protects travelers during their trip with medical expense coverage, including Covid-19 related expenses, hospitalization, and repatriation costs, worldwide.
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What:
Marsh collaborates with Risilience to support clients globally in understanding climate change risks and meet their obligations following the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Why:
By using Risilience as part of the climate change consulting services, Marsh can support clients to be more resilient to climate risks as they emerge, develop actionable plans to reach net-zero within their timeframes, and meet their TCFD obligations.
How:
- Risilience is a deep tech data analytics platform that enables corporations to understand, manage, and report on their net-zero journey.
- The TCFD’s framework is the Financial Stability Board’s preferred vehicle for developing a globally accepted scheme for reporting climate change risk.
- As part of the collaboration, Marsh’s clients have access to climate change risk analytics pioneered by Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies.
- Using the Risilience risk platform, clients can map their journey to net-zero, monitor their progress towards achieving it, and gain actionable insight.
- This will enable them to generate annual climate risk reports in line with TCFD requirements.
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What:
Reinsurance Group of America announced the launch of its FAC Optimization solution featuring Amazon Textract.
Why:
RGA is continuing to find ways to innovate underwriting and risk selection by augmenting its facultative underwriting process.
How:
- RGA uses Amazon Textract in their FAC Optimization solution to make underwriting more efficient, deliver more accurate and timely insurance quotes, and improve the customer experience
- Amazon Textract is a machine learning service from Amazon Web Services (AWS) that uses optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text, handwriting, and data from scanned documents.
- RGA uses AWS machine learning technologies to reduce friction in the underwriting process for its clients.
- By integrating machine learning, OCR, and natural language processing (NLP) technology into the underwriting process, information can be digitized and converted into a concise, easily understandable format to assist underwriters.
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What:
Great American Insurance Group launched EagleEye by Great American, a cyber risk management platform.
Why:
To leverage NIST Cybersecurity Framework and bring the resources and insights of a Fortune 500 company to the small and medium enterprise marketplace for cyber risk insurance.
How:
- EagleEye is a collaboration between Great American’s Enterprise Information Security Group and its Cyber Risk operations, designed by IT professionals for IT professionals.
- The foundation of the platform was built with the assistance of the University of Cincinnati Information Technology Solutions Center, as the Great American team assessed the maturity of its own IT organization and identified the best way to manage the risks they face.
- The platform combines the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) review of an organization’s cyber security posture with insights from continuous, external vulnerability scans and cyber security ratings from SecurityScorecard.
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