In 2020 the Zurich Innovation Championship attracted more than 1,350 entries, involved 68 countries and territories, and produced 25 local and three global winners.
The program, which has been running since 2018, is one of the largest startup innovation competitions in the insurance industry. See our interactive map of the startups that took part at the bottom of this page.
But the reality is that to make competitions like this a success, and to build durable digital partnerships, is difficult.
According to Accenture research, the success rate of collaborations is only 44% due to “poor forward planning and hitting avoidable issues”. By contrast, 14% of companies that actively mitigate the key challenges of open innovation early in the collaboration process are rewarded with a success rate of 68%.
So how does Zurich put itself in the minority of companies, which have been able to build an effective collaborative environment that is valued by startups? And what incentive is there for startups to step over to the corporate arena and collaborate with the 150-year-old incumbent in 2021?
According to Stuart Domingos, Head of Group Innovation at Zurich, the value of the Zurich Innovation Competition is in, as one previous winner described it, “combining the strength of an elephant with the speed of a cheetah”.
Zurich has a massive customer base, but it knows that startups have the agility, entrepreneurial spirit, and many of the new thoughts and ideas in insurance. As 60% of all new products that come to market are from startups, so it’s important to pair up with them, says Domingos.
“The reason there are startups, and the reason they get funded by so many venture capitalists, is that everyone recognises innovation happens best when it’s unburdened from risk,” says Lonny Stormo, CEO of healthtech Pops Diabetes Care, one of last year’s winners.
“In a corporate, there are always forces pulling away from innovation. They have a revenue stream, customer base and reputation to protect. But in a startup, the risk profile is different. We don’t have a large customer base, a big legacy product or a reputation to protect, so we’re willing to move fast, take risks and jump into anything.”
And this reality has demanded an open innovation approach from Zurich to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of startups, while opening up Zurich’s global resources and expertise to them in return.
“Competitive spirit can bring people together, and that is exactly what the Zurich Innovation Championship is about,” says Domingos, describing the format of the event, which is split into three rounds: country, regional and global. “It’s really like the rounds of the soccer World Cup, leveraging on the competitive nature of human beings.”
Domingos says that by collaborating with the startups Zurich’s CEOs are inspired by the latest trends, and they get to scout a wide breadth of companies because Zurich has a portfolio approach to the entrants, including startups that range from well-developed value chain innovators through to riskier moonshots.
In return, Zurich gives the startups a unique and structured chance to speak to global, regional and group CEOs and leadership, as well as to get feedback from frontline employees, and the full Zurich Group Executive Committee. “Before that it was ad-hoc, but this provides a fair transparent and structured approach, a space where ideas can grow into initiatives that can benefit customers and the business,” he says.
Winners reflect
Last year’s winners ClaimFlo powered by Safekeep, Jupiter Intelligence and Pops Diabetes Care, will now have the opportunity to work with Zurich and bring their pilot plans to life in their chosen markets, with the goal to scale their solutions globally.
“Right from the get-go, Zurich pushed us to think beyond our home market in North America and consider how we could leverage our technology platforms in other regions,” says Jeff To, CEO of InsurTech ClaimFlo.
But what’s the benefit to Zurich? It’s “focus” says To. “Startups bring agility, energy, focus and commitment into solving problems in a superfast manner without being distracted.”
And previous winners attest to mutual respect developed between them and the insurer.
“I think Zurich’s innovation process is among the best we’ve seen in any industry,” says Rich Sorkin, CEO at data and analytics startup Jupiter Intelligence. “And we’ve probably been treated as a startup with more respect and professionalism by Zurich than almost any big company I’ve ever worked with in my entire career.”
For a startup taking part in the event, that respect is often gained by finding a strategic initiative they can align with, says Stormo from Pops Diabetes Care.
“It’s really difficult to convince a corporate they’re going in the wrong direction. But if they have already figured out a direction they want to go, and you can help them on that journey, that’s a winner.”
Equally, Domingos remains aware of how essential it is for large corporates to learn from their successful collaborations with innovative startups.
“It’s not always easy, but ignoring the opportunities or not taking any action is riskier still,” he says. “History is littered with once-great companies who did not see the need to innovate until it was too late.”
Sustainable innovation, lessons learned
The next Zurich Innovation Championship, as in previous years, aims to arm the winning startups with the resources needed to implement pilot programs, exposure through press releases and media channels, as well as recognition from Zurich’s Group Leadership Team.
The competition will be informed by a drive to create sustainable, long-lasting change within Zurich’s innovation culture, which Domingos thinks will be vital to the insurer’s success.
“Once we stop pushing, it’s there as part of what we do, and so we want it to be bigger and better every year,” he says of the program.
“In crisis, there are moments to reflect and see the opportunity that comes across. The concept of protection has been top of mind: protecting others, collaboration, solidarity, digitisation, all combining as concepts over the next couple of years. I do expect disruptive business models to emerge from this crisis.”
To learn more about the 2021 Zurich Innovation Championship, visit https://www.zurich.com/zic and sign up to receive notifications of when the next Zurich Innovation Championship kicks off.
2020 winners:
ClaimFlo powered by Safekeep (North America) https://www.safekeep.com/
Safekeep is a New York City-based fintech and its ClaimFlo solution is a rules-driven, straight-through processing platform for property and casualty claims. Using machine learning, the solution has the potential for increasing efficiency and cost effectiveness in identifying and processing subrogation claims.
Pops (Australia) https://popsdiabetes.com/
Pops is an integrated virtual care system that empowers people with diabetes to own their lives.
Jupiter Intelligence (North America) https://jupiterintel.com/
Jupiter Intelligence provides catastrophic risk modelling that factors in ongoing climate change. They deliver risk-focused and actionable climate-related insights, which have the potential to enhance efforts to create climate change resilience for Zurich customers.
Interactive map of Zurich Innovation Championship 2020 winners, click the logos for more on the startups!