InsurTech start-ups invited to compete for £50k prize in Insurathon competition

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is now inviting entries to its seventh Insurathon, a competition that supports start-up and scale-up technology businesses pursuing technological advancements and innovation in the insurance sector. The firm has now provided in excess of £250,000 of pro bono advice and investment support to start-ups through the Insurathon, since its 2017 launch. The applicants who are selected as finalists will compete for a prize, consisting of:

• £25,000 of pro bono UK legal and regulatory advice from lawyers within Norton Rose Fulbright’s market-leading corporate and regulatory insurance practice
• A potential equity investment of £25,000

All Insurathon applicants will have access to a one-to-one 45-minute pro bono clinic provided by the firm’s lawyers who cover legal and regulatory issues across areas such as corporate, restructuring, commercial arrangements, intellectual property, data privacy, employment and labour and financial services regulation. All finalists will also be eligible for three 45-minute pro bono legal clinics during the competition day. The firm is interested in seeing proposals from scale-up and start-up businesses that are developing technology or propositions in the following areas:

• Insurance offerings that seek to digitise some or all parts of a particular insurance value chain using technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, Internet of Things (IoT), analytics, and/or smart contract technology
• The commercial (re)insurance market across a broad range of capabilities, such as platforms, augmented underwriting, machine learning, claims, dynamic pricing, active risk management, data and analytics
• Novel insurance solutions and platforms, whether running off blockchain or similar technology, a secondary trading platform or an information sharing platform for (re)insurance
• Products or services that challenge the existing (re)insurance proposition and way of doing business

The application deadline is March 5, 2024. Businesses interested in applying can find more information, including details on how to apply, on the Norton Rose Fulbright website. This year’s finalists will be announced on Friday March 8, 2024 and the final will take place on Friday March 15, 2024. Previous winners of the firm’s Insurathon include InsurX, ARMD, Anansi, Riskbook (now Supercede), Concirrus, Pluto Travel, Mackenzie Intelligence Services, Flock Cover and Nexus Mutual.