Ninety’s Insurance Innovation Pulse: October 2022

Ninety’s Insurance Innovation Pulse is our new periodic round-up of the pulse of new ideas in the global insurance industry. We cover monthly highlights, top innovation themes and Ninety’s Idea Pulse dashboard and innovation analysis for the month. The monthly dashboard monitors monthly innovation trends by business lines and regions and to Ninety’s innovation taxonomy as well – the Ten Types of Insurance Innovation.

Officially announced, ready to market innovations, VC investments and collaborations from leading insurers, reinsurers and brokers form the basis of our analysis.

We also showcase five case studies of innovations from a cross-section of business lines and innovation themes. For the most part, the case studies chosen are representative examples of commonly recurring themes of the month rather than examples that focus on novel ideas or one-of-a-kind solutions.

In addition, we will also highlight examples of future innovation as seen through the lens of research and venture investment in emerging risks and technologies.

October 2022 Highlights

• In October, Ninety recorded a total of 62 new ideas and announcements from insurance businesses around the world, not counting insurtechs.
• New product/service launches and ecosystem partnerships were the key trends during the month with focus on risks arising from cyber security events, EV infrastructure, and environmental liability. We also saw initiatives in the health domain, which include – cancer screening solution, affordable pet health solutions, and improvement of elderly care.
• This was followed by venture investments in adjacent products and services with insurers investing in startups engaged in fulfilment technology, property-tech, insurtech, and space tech.

The Top Innovation Themes during October

Insurance Idea Pulse Dashboard: October 2022

Ninety’s Analysis

• Insurers continue to step up collaborations with tech companies to develop better risk prediction tools and capabilities related to marine risks, climate risk and food insecurity, and accident & health.
• The momentum on Net Zero targets continues against the backdrop of COP27. Key industry strategies that were announced include Munich Re changing the way they underwrite/invest in oil & gas projects and, the V20 group and G7 jointly launching Global Shield against Climate Risks at COP27.
• In terms of insurance segments, Specialty, Reinsurance & Lloyd’s remained in the top position on the leader board with a 40% share. Personal and Commercial P&C occupied a share of 24% each during the month.
• The share of Europe increased to 50% for the first time in 2022, while that of North America dropped to 37%. 

Five Innovations That Made Headlines in October

1. Risk Mitigation with IIoT: Munich Re & HSB partner with Schneider Electric on electrical risk

Global reinsurer Munich Re and its subsidiary, HSB, have partnered with Schneider Electric, a specialist in energy management and automation, on electrical and equipment risk. The partnership will blend risk solutions including uptime guarantees and unwarned failure warranties, with IoT technology to serve clients.

Together, the companies will help businesses to remain resilient by predicting faults and hindrances within their operations, using HSB’s IoT sensor solutions to complement Schneider Electric’s flagship power distribution system, EcoStruxure Power.

As an initial outcome of the alliance, Schneider Electric’s ArcBlok 2500 innovation will include an HSB-backed performance guarantee, bringing extra peace of mind to customers.

2. Digital channels: AXA UK Retail launches Moja – its new digital-only insurance brand

AXA UK Retail has announced the launch of Moja, its new digital-only insurance brand for customers who buy products or use services via their smartphone or tablet.

Initially available for motor insurance customers on Compare the Market and direct via mojainsurance.co.uk, Moja will be rolled out across more price comparison websites later this year and extended into other insurance markets from 2023.

Moja marks a new direction for AXA Retail by providing a digital-only service optimised for use on smartphones and tablets. In addition to tiered covers, it includes a range of options that customers can add to their policy, such as cover for personal belongings like satnavs or audio equipment as well as children’s car seats.

Customers can manage their policy and will be able to make claims online 24/7, although they can still speak to someone about their claim if they need to, for example in an emergency or to discuss a complicated claim. They can also change their policy online anytime without being charged.

3. Embedded Insurance for drones: Liberty Specialty Markets partners with Sony to offer drone insurance.

Liberty Specialty Markets is teaming up with REIN, developer of the IX platform for embedded products, to provide Sony Electronics with an insurance product to offer drone purchasers and operators an instantly accessible coverage option.

Sony announced the Airpeak S1, the world’s smallest class drone that can be equipped with a full-size mirrorless interchangeable-lens Alpha camera, in December 2021 to accommodate market growth. With the increase in drone use comes the need to ensure that operators have sufficient and appropriate insurance coverage. Having an insurance product offer provides added value to Sony’s Airpeak S1 and gives added confidence to those who seek to explore this fast-growing market.

4. Hay fire risk monitoring: Nationwide partners with Quanturi to help prevent hay fires

Nationwide is partnering with Finnish AgTech company Quanturi Oy to help prevent hay fires. As part of the partnership, Nationwide’s agribusiness customers will have discounted access to Quanturi’s HAYTECH, a wireless hay monitoring system.

To use HAYTECH, customers install a series of easy-to-spot and long-lasting probes into their operation’s hay bales and stacks, which will regularly transmit temperature measurements to the cloud and alert operators when concerns arise. Benefits include HAYTECH warning producers of unusual temperature rises, enabling them to anticipate fire hazards and minimize the risk of losing haystacks and more, optimize the profitability of their haystacks using temperature data to determine quality, reduce safety risks with remote access and simplify hay production certification.

The product comes with a monthly cost of $199, but an “early adopter” Nationwide customer can secure a price of $99/month for three years.

5. Mental health risk assessment: SCOR launches Vitae Mental Health

Reinsurance giant SCOR has announced the launch of Vitae, an automated biometric risk calculator that employs machine learning techniques to address the growing problem of mental health conditions and challenges associated with underwriting and pricing mental health risks.

SCOR’s Vitae Mental Health solution delivers a way to ease the complex classification of these risks, while ensuring the circumstances of the individual customer are considered. The tool is designed to enable more accurate risk assessment based on a wider array of medical factors and simplifies the underwriting process, to yield a better experience for end customers.

It includes new features organised around differing scenarios that will assist the underwriter to provide more individualised assessments. In order to take into account localised factors that contribute to mental health and ensure an accurate approach to assessing the risks related to mental health in a given market, Vitae Mental Health will initially be made available for the Australia and New Zealand markets and will be further extended to other markets over time.

Future Innovation – Research & Ventures