PEARL RIVER, NY, September 11, 2020—ACORD, the global standards-setting body for the insurance industry, today announced the winner of the 2020 ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge New York. Micruity, a central clearinghouse for communicating, verifying, and aggregating annuity-related data in a secure and frictionless manner, was among 10 startups who presented their innovations virtually yesterday to a panel of industry expert judges.
The ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge (AIIC) is hosted in multiple cities annually, this year in London and New York. Micruity joins AIIC London winner Virtual i Technologies, a data-driven platform for risk assessment and loss adjustment.
The Micruity platform sits between the key stakeholders required to power lifetime income in defined contribution plans - life insurers, fund managers, and recordkeepers. By using a simple one-time integration to Micruity, defined contribution recordkeepers access multiple annuity/annuity-based investment products, seamless portability of the annuity, and an event-driven application for turning on the payout at retirement.
Among other prizes, Micruity will receive a $10,000 cash award and will be featured in an ACORD–promoted webinar to present their innovation. The company, along with the runners-up, will have the opportunity to present their pitch in a VIP Showcase at ACORD Industry First.
“ACORD is proud to support insurance technology entrepreneurs at our sixth annual innovation challenge. Today we saw new ways to leverage data, transact business and manage claims,” said Bijesh Jacob, SVP, Technology & Standards, ACORD Solutions Group. "Now more than ever, we need to emphasize the importance of innovation as our industry moves to digitize and modernize. All of the participants today are part of a movement working to drive positive change for the insurance community.”
Judges for the AIIC New York included:
- Gabriel Glynn, Co-Founder & CEO, MÄkuSafe (2019 AIIC Winner)
- Andrew Johnston, Global Head of Willis Re InsurTech, Willis Re
- Jim Rogers, AVP, Agency Automation/Transformation Office, The Hartford
- Paul Tyler, Chief Marketing Officer, Nassau Re
Other competing companies included:
- Allganize, an AI startup that enables customers and employees of large enterprises to find answers from company documents and FAQ in an answer bot or search bar interface.
- Cogitate Technology Solutions, Inc., which develops technology products to help insurance companies digitalize their business to deliver modern experience, open additional channels, reduce operational expenses and increase product speed to market.
- Life Settlement Hub (LS Hub), the first electronic submission, tracking, management and direct marketing platform for the sale of existing life insurance (life settlement).
- Paxafe, which develops an AI-enabled IoT platform that classifies and contextualizes supply chain data to drive more accurate prediction of unfavorable events, de-risk B2B shipments and enable dynamic cargo insurance.
- Pitch Gauge LLC, which helps claim adjusters and roofers accurately measure the size and dimensions of a roof on their phone or tablet either from the ground, or from satellite imagery.
- PluggdIn, a connected car safe driving solution that consists of a smart IOT car phone holder along with a mobile app.
- Relay Platform Inc., which accelerates reinsurance (facultative, programs, treaty) and complex insurance placements by 50%, dramatically reducing re-keying and E&O, and providing integrated reporting across entire portfolios for improved exposure, contract and claim management.
- Skyglyph, a company that provides a collaborative mobile and web platform for crop insurance, making agriculture insurance fast, affordable, and trustful using remote sensing, ML, and blockchain.
- Wenalyze, a data analytics solution that leverages open data sources to provide insurers with the ability to more accurately rate risk in commercial insurance for both new and current business.
More information about the ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge is available at www.acordchallenge.org.