Spotlight is on InsurTech for Global Entrepreneurship Week events
Startup GUERNSEY is once again hosting a series of events for Global Entrepreneurship Week, and this year the attention turns to financial innovation, specifically in insurance, or InsurTech.
Hosting a talk entitled ‘Disrupting insurance, empowering customers’, Startup Guernsey hopes the audience will be inspired by the journey of one insurance entrepreneur, Tobias Taupitz of Laka.
While Laka is based in the UK, Guernsey also has a rich entrepreneurial ecosystem extending beyond Startup Guernsey to support financial innovation.
Guernsey has long been an innovative jurisdiction when it comes to insurance. Captive insurance companies have recently led the way in linking insurance policies to the capital markets via insurance linked securities and embraced the use of blockchain technology to introduce a level of automation and security to ILS transactions.
Key to this success is the joined-up support of insurance visionaries and the Guernsey financial regulator.
The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has developed its own programme to support innovation in finance, the Innovation SoundBox Hub, which provides a clear pathway of support for insurance innovators with open communication channels and regulatory certainty for innovative business.
The GFSC has recently joined the Global Financial Innovation Network, a network of international regulators and related organisations committed to supporting financial innovation.
This gives local InsurTech entrepreneurs access to an international knowledge base of regulation to support their initiatives. Emma Bailey, director of the authorisations and innovation division of the GFSC, said: ‘We see a range of companies proposing new ways of marrying technology and finance and have been pleased to work with them to make sure they understand how to work within the regulations.
‘At the same time, we learn from them possible new ways in which financial services will change in the future.’
One local InsurTech company has also grown from strength to strength.
John Davison, chief information officer of First Central Group, said: ‘We’ve seen continued success by marrying our technical and data analytics expertise, using bespoke technology we have developed in Guernsey, with our deep understanding of the motor insurance market, to provide a better customer experience.
‘Guernsey provides a great base from which to serve the group’s businesses and its UK customers.’
Many successful entrepreneurs are seeking to solve a problem, and Tobias Taupitz from Laka is no different.
‘It occurred to me how one-sided insurance is, in the equation the consumer comes last.
‘I thought there must be a better business model for this in a world where customer centricity is the most important thing,’ said Tobias.
To find out more about how Laka rebalances the sides and empowers customers, while using deep analytics and machine learning, come to his Global Entrepreneurship Week talk on 21 November.
The talk is sponsored by 1818 Venture Capital, which has supported him with investment through his journey.
Free tickets for the Tobias Taupitz talk, which takes place at 6pm on Thursday 21 November at the Chamber of Commerce offices, as well as for all of the Global Entrepreneurship Week events, can be booked at www.startup.gg/events.
