This week, InsurTech Fund is taking applications for its first Digital MGA Lab. BikeInsure’s standardized bicycle cover can now be accessed nationally. Zywave has a new chief financial officer. Root named a new board member. Betterview and OneShield are partnering.
A venture capital fund associated with InsurTech NY will start accepting applications for its first Digital MGA Lab on July 7.
The program with InsurTech Fund is designed for digital brokers, analytics start-ups, and European MGAs seeking to become MGAs in North America. Companies will be accepted at any funding stage from Series Seed to Pre-IPO.
Eligible candidates can start sending applications to InsurTech Fund from July 7 through July 27, and the application is available through the InsurTech Fund website.
The MGA Lab is a three-month program focused on the unique needs of MGAs – actuarial modeling, insurance capacity, and retail distribution. Start-ups in the program get access to the most insurtech active program administrators, fronting carriers, and reinsurers looking to provide insurance capacity across all major lines of property and casualty insurance.
“We created this program to help digital MGAs get established properly from the beginning,” David Gritz, InsurTech NY Managing Director, said in prepared remarks.
InsurTech Fund is supporting the MGA Lab in parallel with the InsurTech NY accelerator. MGA Lab participants will be eligible to present at the InsurTech NY demo day where more than 30 dedicated insurtech investors attend. Start-ups are eligible to participate in both programs.
BikeInsure, an insurtech MGA focused on bicycle coverage for US cyclists, said that owners nationally can now access its standardized coverage.
A cyclist obtains standard bike coverage with optional theft protection in just a few minutes, via the company’s website at BikeInsure.com. The policy covers repairs to an insured bicycle and listed accessories due to riding accidents. Coverage continues during the transit of the bike and extends to a stolen bike when optional theft protection is selected.
Great American Insurance Company underwrites the coverage.
The company is also pursuing partnership opportunities for bike manufacturers and bike shops, as well as cycling events and other bike distribution channel companies.
Zywave appointed Paul Rybecky as its new chief financial officer.
The insurtech provider said Rybecky has more than 30 years of executive leadership experience. Most recently, he was CFO of PointClickCare, a provider of cloud-based healthcare software.
In his new role, Rybecky will serve on the senior leadership team and oversee business operations including accounting and finance, corporate development, human resources, information technology and legal.
“His success in similar environments on an accelerated growth plan makes him the ideal person to help us scale our internal operations and reaching our next level of growth,” Zywave CEO Jason Liu said in prepared remarks. “We look forward to seeing his impact.”
Digital insurer Root appointed Julie Szudarek to its board of directors as of July 1.
Szudarek is CEO of Atida, one of the largest pan-European online health and wellbeing groups.
She has more than 25 years of experience driving ecommerce and technology-based businesses to reach their full market potential, the company said. She has also previously held senior leadership roles at Groupon and led strategy and revenue management at Orbitz (acquired by Expedia).
Root co-founder and CEO Alex Timm said in prepared remarks that Szudarek’s experience “in helping big tech companies expand their market reach and strengthen core operations will be pivotal in Root’s success.”
Betterview
Betterview is partnering with OneShield to expand property intelligence and risk management options available to insurer clients.
Betterview has a property intelligence and risk management platform that P/C companies use to spot and mitigate risk, improve operational and inspection efficiency and build a more transparent customer experience through the policy lifecycle. OneShield Software provides cloud-based software for P/C insurers and MGAs focused on areas including policy management, billing, claims, rating, product configuration and business intelligence.
The partnership allows key property intelligence and risk management products from Betterview’s platform to be available to insurer clients within the user interface for the OneShield roster of products.
“Partnering with OneShield will help underwriters access the best available property intelligence solutions in a single location,” Armin Monajemi, vice president of strategic partnerships at Betterview, said in prepared remarks. “Linking these insights with OneShield’s platform will further simplify workflows and save valuable time and resources for underwriters.”
