“If we envision the insurance market 10 years from now, I would like to argue that the mainstream industry should start investing £1 in innovative insurtechs for each £1 spent in maintaining the status quo.”
Those were the words of Nicolò Soresina (pictured), chief executive of insurtech incubator Vittoria hub, in an emailed interview with Insurance Business through which he called on the industry to act swiftly. In Soresina’s view, the consequences for failing to do so could be dire.
“We are already witnessing today how the [next generation] of insurance users and clients (from Gen-Z onwards) are looking for pure digital (mobile- or social-first) paradigms, for innovative underlying products and related service ecosystems, for fresh user experience / user interface designs, for affordable and highly automated human-to-machine interactions and micro-services,” asserted the CEO in the Q&A.
“They have very little appetite for loyalty programmes and a much stronger interest in behaviour-based and pay-per-event insurtech solutions to cover their immediate needs, without much fuss for cumbersome subscriptions and lengthy claim processes. Startups are the key ingredient to make this whole recipe work.”
That isn’t to say, however, that the traditional market has already lost its place.
Soresina told Insurance Business: “We know that the traditional market is still there, alive and kicking, and it is going to stick around for a while. This is not ‘the end of the world as we know it’, as R.E.M. sang. But if we envision the insurance market 10 years from now, I would like to argue that the mainstream industry should start investing £1 in innovative insurtechs for each £1 spent in maintaining the status quo.
“Industries that failed to understand this urgency for long-term unstoppable digital change in the past (and the related need to embrace/adopt innovative start-ups as an opportunity rather than a threat) have been either wiped away or dramatically reshuffled over the last decades. Think about the media industry, the telecommunications industry, the consumer electronics industry, and so on.”
Dedicated to open innovation, Vittoria hub is a project launched by Italian insurer Vittoria Assicurazioni in 2019. The accelerator has since worked with insurtech entrepreneurs and is now inviting startups for the fourth edition of Vittoria hub’s “Call for Ideas” (C4I) programme.
C4I 2023 is open to both early-stage and post-seed startups from Europe (including the UK) and the US. Those interested in participating have until April 30 to submit applications.
Meanwhile Soresina, who believes insurtechs are needed now “more than ever,” has a piece of advice for those looking to innovate the insurance supply system.
He shared: “Based on our experience with a few brilliant and successful insurtech entrepreneurs in the first three years at Vittoria hub, I would offer advice on two non-sectorial factors.
“First: those that never give up are more likely to succeed. Successful entrepreneurship, in my humble opinion (as a serial entrepreneur myself), is only 30% sheer genius and 70% resilience and believing in your vision, especially when times are tough and your startup lifecycle kicks you to the ground again and again. You stand up and keep going.
“Second: invest in talent early on and keep cultivating your team across the different stages of growth. Successful startups create organisational continuity and a sense of cohesion and belonging to a higher mission in their human capital, which helps them retain that talent and create a team identity. It is not just about ‘breaking even’ – the challenge in times of talent scarcity is to build a scalable team.”
This year’s C4I will be focussing on innovative projects proposing predictive analysis systems. Further details are provided here.
