Sync Technologies selected as InsurtechLIVE pitch winner

A rapid-fire pitch competition hosted at InsurtechLIVE 23 has been won by Sydney-based construction data firm Sync Technologies.

Co-Founder and CEO Carolina Dreifuss-Aravena and her team will now compete at InsureTech Connect Asia 2023 in Singapore after she detailed how Sync’s visual property data had cut insurer claim assessment times and travel costs by up to 75% and “saved over 7000 working days”.

Her pitch was up against selected insurtechs Sentro, Advisr, Hollard-backed Kanopi, and compliance platform Curium.

Hundreds gathered at the annual event last week, hosted by Insurtech Australia, to attend session topics ranging from geospatial data and AI, to funding challenges, to cyber. Sponsor Hamilton Locke revealed to attendees it has teamed with Insurtech Australia to create a guide to doing business in Australia for insurtech startups and new entrants.

“One of the biggest challenges for them is navigating a myriad of Australian insurance laws and regulation. So what we’ve tried to do is bring together all the experts in our firm across regulation, compliance, employment, capital and debt, privacy, consumer data and technology to create a definitive guide,” Hamilton Locke said.

Here is a sample of the InsurtechLIVE 23 sessions, attended by insuranceNEWS.com.au. More commentary is available here.

Handdii

Insurance industry veteran Kathryn Wood, who with Christie Downs founded successful property repair claims platform Handdii, told the crowd funding was still there for sound propositions.

IA CEO Simone Dossetor had acknowledged attracting capital had become harder and 2022 marked “the first that we’ve seen a drop in the global overall investment in ‘insurtech’ since that phrase first came about in 2016.”

“What we’re hearing from our current investors is that there is money out there but people are being super, super conservative about where they’re putting that money and not making the types of bets that they were making,” Ms Wood said.

“From Series A to Series B is really challenging on the valuation front at the moment. Everyone’s turned from looking at growth, to looking at ‘Well, can you actually become profitable?’”

Handdii – which connects customers directly with local contractors on behalf of insurance companies – operates in 20 US states and plans to be national by the end of 2023.

“That’s our goal,” Ms Wood said. “We’re very lucky, we’ve got a really great funnel of new clients coming through this year over in the States, and certainly here in Australia as well, and we’re looking at how do we strengthen the contractor base that we’ve currently got and just keep getting those claims to local contractors who can fix properties fast.

“What was interesting was as we started to gain traction in the States, insurance companies back here started to get interested in us and start to say ‘Oh, hang on, are we actually missing out on something?’

“Being able to demonstrate success overseas is very attractive for Australians, both from a VC perspective, and otherwise.”

Cover Genius

In a session exploring customer perceptions of insurance, Cover Genius SVP Strategic Partnerships APAC Barney Pierce said “choice paralysis and overload” was to be avoided and pleasing customers was all about one thing: convenience.

“Time and time again, from the research we do and from our experience, the reason why embedded insurance has been working so well is convenience,” Mr Pierce said.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement clearly, but actually this is kind of why I got into the insurance space in the first place – with so much opportunity to improve the customer experience, that just presents a great play for insurtechs. There’s upside, that’s for sure.

“It’s a consistent thing across industries. If you can provide a relevant offer that’s customised at the right time, and you can provide a seamless end to end experience – that means right through the claims journey – that’s absolutely critical. And that’s really what’s helping drive a lot of good feedback.

“Convenience, time and time again, comes back as the number one.”

Cyber

Law & Cyber Founder Simone Herbert-Lowe said “tick the box compliance is not the answer,” and organisations need cyber education that is meaningful and compelling, so that “people see this will happen to me”.

She witnessed a large breach case in which a very senior lawyer was caught out by a client who fabricated an email from another person, resulting in the transfer of a large sum of money.

“You’re never too smart, or too junior or too important to be a target. These assumptions, I hear again and again.

“Once you start thinking that you choose not to be a target, or that I can outsource this to the IT department, you’re already behind the game. What you want is everyone in the business understanding that they could be the target,” Ms Herbert-Lowe said.

“Foundational education around that is really important.”