The chief minister of the Isle of Man and independent minister of the House of Keys, as well as the senior director and insurtech innovation leader at Willis Towers Watson, were in attendance at the demonstration day
The first Isle of Man Insurtech Accelerator Program has concluded with a demonstration day on the island, following an intensive four-month accelerator programme.
The conference on 26 January 2023 was attended by more than 160 people from seven countries.
Seven selected scaleups from the UK, Europe and Singapore were accepted into the accelerator’s first cohort to showcase their technologies to the island’s insurance industry and senior figures across banking, eGaming, pensions, legal and accountancy.
The cohort presented in front of invited guests, including the chief minister of the Isle of Man and independent minister of the House of Keys Alfred Cannan, as well as Magdalena Ramada Sarasola, senior director and insurtech innovation leader at Willis Towers Watson.
The programme was a collaboration between Insurtech Isle of Man – an insurtech hub backed by the Isle of Man’s government, regulator and insurance professionals – and F10, which is a global innovation system for fintechs and insurtechs.
Michael Crowe, Finance Isle of Man’s chief executive, said: “It has been a privilege to see these scaleups developing and we are particularly excited to see how the relationships between them and other companies across the island continue to grow.
“This programme has shown that the Isle of Man is a brilliant place for fintech startups and scaleups to develop and test their products in a highly supportive environment.
”This is an area of real strength for us and I am excited to see the results of the FinTech Innovation Challenge that was launched last year to spark innovation in the fintech world.”
Insurtech on the island
The accelerator originally aimed at developing solutions for the insurance sector, however it has revealed technology with applications for wider regulated industries.
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The cohort has received support to help improve its offering, including personalised mentoring and coaching, as well as the opportunity to work with insurers – Zurich International, Utmost Wealth, RL360, Momentum International, EIP and Hansard.
It also encouraged collaboration between the cohort with some joint ventures being formed.
Marc Hauser, head of F10 Europe, added: “After over a year of early talks and then close collaboration with Finance Isle of Man we reached an important milestone.
“Reflecting on what we achieved, I am super excited and couldn’t be any prouder of what the ministry, the participating insurance companies and startups have achieved.”
Hauser continued: “We absolutely exceeded our expectations – not only did we raise awareness of insurtech on the island, but insurers also became more proficient in collaborating and startups were able to discover new business opportunities.”
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