First Isle of Man insuretech programme concludes

The first Isle of Man Insurtech Accelerator Programme has concluded with a demo day for scale-ups to pitch their technologies to the business community.

The event marked the culmination of the intensive four-month Insurtech Accelerator Program, organised in partnership with F10, designed to connect technology companies from around the world with the Isle of Man’s insurance industry.

Seven scale-up companies from the UK, Europe and Singapore were selected to take part - each offering technologies with the potential to transform parts of the insurance landscape.

The demo day gave them the chance to showcase the technological advances they have each made during the program in front of invited guests including Chief Minister of the Isle of Man, the Hon Alfred Cannan, MHK, and Magdalena Ramada Sarasola, senior director and Insurtech innovation leader, at Willis Towers Watson.

Originally aimed at developing solutions for the insurance sector, it become clear during the program that the technology had applications for wider regulated industries, F10 said.

As a result, the event provided an opportunity for the scale-ups to pitch not just to executives from across the Island’s insurance industry, but also to senior figures from across other sectors including banking, pensions, legal, eGaming, and accountancy.

Throughout the programme, participating companies received a range of support designed to help improve their offering. This included personalised mentoring and coaching, as well as the opportunity to work with insurers such as Zurich International, Utmost Wealth, RL360, Momentum International, EIP and Hansard.

The programme also encouraged collaboration between participating companies - with some expected to form joint ventures as a result.
“We are delighted with the success of our inaugural Insurtech Accelerator Programme,” said Michael Crowe, chief executive of Finance Isle of Man. It has been a privilege to see these scale-ups 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 start-ups and scale-ups 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.”