Aviva Ventures

Aviva Ventures is the wholly owned venture arm of Aviva, investing in a range of early stage InsurTech startups. It provides investment, and access to Aviva’s global operation for entrepreneurs with startups that are of strategic relevance to Aviva.

Based in London, Aviva Ventures plans to commit £20 million per year to startups operating in four key areas including:

1. IoT, including connected homes and cars
2. Data and analytics
3. Innovative customer experiences
4. Digital distribution, usage based insurance

One interesting example of an Aviva venture investment is Owlstone Medical which is leveraging proprietary and proven Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS) technology in its disease breathalyser product range. Other interesting members of Aviva Ventures portfolio include:

Being a strategic corporate venture fund, Aviva is endeavouring not only to invest in early stage InsurTechs but also to develop a strategic relationship with such companies that aligns with its broader goals. Ultimately, Aviva Ventures, like most legacy insurers, is on the lookout for new and disruptive ideas and technologies, talent and speed that will help accelerate Aviva’s internal innovation efforts including its ‘Digital Garage’ based in both London and Singapore.

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A VC arm like Aviva Ventures will help to insulate Aviva from new technologies that may undermine Aviva’s current operation. Establishing a venture arm also helps Aviva move faster, more flexibly, and more cost effectively as compared to other incumbents who are relying on internal R&D teams. Being a strategic venture fund also helps to stimulate demand for Aviva’s own products and at the same time, keeps the window open to earn attractive returns in the future. Venturing will also enable Aviva to look beyond its core functionality and explore new avenues where they can immediately respond to customer requests, identify and underwrite new types of risk and take strategic decisions based on real-time data.

Ultimately, Aviva Ventures is trying to do what any corporate venture arm does, i.e. to find next generation technology, digital business models and teams. Although technology and digital business models often come hand in hand, the war for talent is the unspoken factor in corporate venture investments. In light of this, we predict more insurer venture arms to make talent acquisitions or ‘acquihires’, as opposed to technology or business model acquisitions.

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