On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Alex Taylor, Global Head of Emerging Technology, QBE Ventures at QBE Insurance, who firmly believes that the next decade will expose the insurance industry to the greatest upheaval it has seen since the establishment of Lloyd's of London.

In this episode, topics discussed include: the key trends in Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) for 2024, QBE Ventures' approach to scouting for growth, the role of technology in QBE Ventures' growth strategy, & the challenges and opportunities in the insurtech space.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I've always been a technologist as far back as I can remember. And it's interesting that when you look at the context behind the applications of technology to a multitude of industries, you start to realise that it's not about the technology, it's about what we can do with the technology.
• 2023 has been a tough time. And talking to a lot of younger companies, it's a bit of a bloodbath out there. What we're going to see as we go into 2024 is the survivors of that time, the ones that did manage to demonstrate the value that they offer, start to see the light of day.
• More & more, organisations are appearing that help us to specialise products specifically to the risk that particular organisation represents. The risk that we run here is that if we specialise & personalise too much, then we're essentially not going to be in an environment where we can cover a risk that we know with almost certainty will result in a loss. We need to balance what needs to be created between the ability to utilise data insurance lines & the need to preserve the thing that makes insurance special, which I strongly believe enables the economic environment we operate in. Without insurance, people can't take risk in any arena.
• Your exposure to ransomware is directly related to an understanding of the backups that you have as an organisation. So you cannot have your access to your data removed if you have an air gap backup that you perform on an hourly basis. If you do get hit as an organisation, you can simply go back to your backup and restore it. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Technology doesn't matter unless it has an application to what you're working on, to something that's meaningful, to something that can deliver results, not just to an organization, but to the customers as well.’
‘The whole point of an insurance product is to protect against a risk that yourself can't mitigate directly. We're starting to see a partnership between the identification of a risk, an insurance product, & the resilience against that risk through remediation.’
‘There's a lot of blank space that can be exploited in looking at ways to grow products through simplification.’
‘As climate change starts to take hold, as our understanding of the historically static nature of physical risk starts to become a lot more dynamic, the value of understanding what may be is starting to become a lot more relevant.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Alex Taylor is a futurist & innovation specialist with over two decades of experience in the insurance and technology industries. As the Global Head of Emerging Technology at QBE Ventures, Alex focuses on identifying disruptors & leading investments into companies that are reshaping the insurance landscape.

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ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew, a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers & accelerating over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. 

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