Guy Carp unveils insurtech unit
Guy Carpenter has launched a new unit dedicated to helping insurers identify insurtech startups suitable to work with—eliminating much of the time, effort and risk currently associated with this process.
GC Genesis will have a dedicated team of executives but also draw on the wider resources of Guy Carpenter globally, working closely with client managers.
In essence, the new unit will help insurers make informed decisions around which insurtech companies to work with or invest in—as opposed to the approach being relatively random, as it is at present for many companies.
The momentum of the insurtech boom is showing no signs of slowing. For re/insurers, establishing a strategy on how to engage with the growing number of startups and their plethora of new technologies can be a daunting process—and one fraught with risk.
GC Genesis is designed to rationalise this process. “Our clients have been crying out for this sort of assistance for some time; some fear making mistakes or making decisions for the wrong reasons,” Vicky Carter, vice chairman, strategic advisory, Guy Carpenter, told Monte Carlo Today.
“There is a mixture of excitement and trepidation in the way our clients approach this process. They don’t know whether to buy, or invest, or partner, and how to select who do it with. This will give them a solid framework within which they can make these important strategic decisions,” Carter said.
The process will work in two stages for insurers. First, in the ‘Fitting Process’, GC Genesis will work with clients to identify their existing competencies and strategic needs. It will examine a company’s current growth, profit, and cost reduction strategies and look at how insurtech startups might accelerate those plans.
Guy Carpenter has a database and research capability to help companies navigate the insurtech community which numbers over 2,000 companies globally, developing everything from artificial intelligence to robotic automation, which is also growing all the time. The needs of a client can then be mapped against the capabilities of these companies.
“They are all varied in what they offer and what they do and how mature their offering is. But this process allows us to look at the entire landscape and make informed decisions,” said Claude Yoder, managing director and global chief innovation and product development officer, Guy Carpenter.
The second stage of the process is delivered by what has been dubbed the InsurTech Alliance service, a collaboration between Guy Carpenter and Numerati Partners. The latter applies its technical capabilities and science and engineering expertise to find the most effective way in which the insurtech company and the insurer might work together. This could simply be through the carrier licensing the technology at one end of the scale, or the insurer could choose to invest.
“Numerati and its ecosystem of scientists and engineers will conduct a technical evaluation of the product and service offerings of the startups and assess whether they are suitable for the needs of our clients,” said Yoder.
“For us, it is a case of helping our clients create a roadmap for where they want to get to and then helping them understand how the many new technologies available might help.”
