British insurance heavyweight Aviva has announced a new partnership with Plug and Play, a global digital start-up accelerator headquartered in Silicon Valley.
The collaboration enables Aviva to access digital start-ups and help them turn ideas into products or services.
The partnership initially aims to find digital insurance innovations through its InsurTech programme, which will be launched in September.
The project hopes to attract up to 1,000 applications from start-ups looking to disrupt the insurance industry.
Aviva will select the most promising ideas and will see 40 to 50 start-ups working out of Plug and Play’s headquarters in Silicon Valley.
The insurer said the partnership accelerates its cultural transformation and its “Digital First” strategy, which aims to make customer engagement simpler and convenient.
“I’m delighted we are working with Plug and Play, and see the partnership as a key way to move our culture and innovation forward rapidly,” said Monique Shivanandan, Aviva chief information officer.
“This partnership forms another exciting strand of our digital innovation strategy as well as providing opportunities for our people to work with leading entrepreneurs to explore new digital innovations and thinking,” added chief digital officer Andrew Brem.
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