Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) has selected 12 start-ups to collaborate on novel ways to serve customers, create more frequent meaningful touchpoints with them, and challenge the boundaries of insurance.

They were selected from 2,600 applicants as part of Zurich's global start-up tournament, the Zurich Innovation Championship.

The tournament, now in its third edition, received approximately 2,600 applications in four categories - insurance reimagined, prevention and mitigation, simplicity, and sustainability.

"The breadth of ideas that we received from start-ups around the world was incredible and gives us a glimpse of what tomorrow's insurance will look like," said Ericson Chan, group chief information & digital officer. "Our winners have well thought-through and innovative solutions, and we look forward to developing these together to provide new solutions to our customers and simplify the way we interact with them."

As Zurich celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, the Zurich Innovation Championship is focusing on the future. 

The 12 chosen start-ups are exploring solutions including technology to detect and prevent cyberbullying; smartphone access to video-based health and wellness monitoring; tools to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of companies and individuals; and settling insurance claims automatically using AI and blockchain.

They are now working with Zurich to further prove themselves and prepare an operational plan in a three-month accelerator phase, a new addition to this year's competition. 

During this phase, the 12 start-ups will benefit from both financial and non-financial support such as mentoring by Zurich executives and experts and access to business use cases, after which an implementation phase will bring the successful ideas to life and scale them globally.

"This is when it gets really exciting as we collaborate to test, grow and execute, allowing for a joint adoption of the most promising use cases," said Stuart Domingos, Head of Group Innovation.

The winners in each category are:

  • Insurance reimagined: Caruso, Garanteasy, Keepers.ai
  • Prevention and mitigation: Adapt Ready, Binah.ai, One Concern
  • Simplicity: Anagog, Democrance, LISA Insurtech
  • Sustainability: Deedster, Dynamhex, Salient

Zurich further said it is also in touch with other participants in the Zurich Innovation Championship globally to explore ways to collaborate together in the future.