Law firm opens 2024 insurtech startup competition

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is inviting insurtech startups to apply to its Insurathon competition, a statement released yesterday (22 January 2024) said.

Now in its seventh year, Insurathon supports startup and scaleup technology businesses pursuing technological innovation in the insurance industry.

For this year’s competition, Norton Rose is seeking proposals from scaleup and startup businesses that are developing technology or propositions in a range of areas.

This includes offerings that seek to digitise some or all parts of a particular insurance and products or services that challenge the existing (re)insurance proposition and way of doing business.

All applicants will have access to a one-to-one 45-minute free clinic provided by the firm’s lawyers who cover legal and regulatory issues across areas such as corporate, restructuring, commercial arrangements, intellectual property, data privacy, employment and labour and financial services regulation.

Finalists will also be eligible for three 45-minute free legal clinics on competition day.

Nicholas Berry, corporate insurance partner at Norton Rose and founder of the competition, told Insurance Times: “We’re extremely excited to launch our seventh Insurathon and look forward to seeing the applications and discovering some innovative business ideas we can support.

”The key factors that the judges will be scrutinising this year is whether there is a genuine insurance-related innovation and if the business model will have a significant impact on the overall insurance market.”

Themes

Norton Rose Fullbright has now provided more than £250,000 of free advice and investment support to startups through the competition since its launch.

Applicants who are selected as finalists will compete for a £50,000 prize – this includes £25,000 of free UK legal and regulatory advice from its lawyers within the law firm as well as a potential equity investment of £25,000. 

Previous winners of the firm’s Insurathon competition includes InsurX, ARMD, Anansi, Supercede (formerly called Riskbook), Concirrus, Pluto Travel, Mackenzie Intelligence Services, Flock Cover and Nexus Mutual.

The deadline for entries is 5 March 2024. This year’s finalists will be announced on 8 March and the final will take place on 15 March 2024.