January 11, 2024

Antony Elliott: The Zurich Innovation Championship

33 minutes

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Antony Elliott, Global Lead for Digital R&D at Zurich Insurance, who is pivotal in driving the exploration, exploitation, analysis, & early-stage adoption of disruptive technologies, shaping Zurich's digital transformation journey.

In this episode, they talk about his role at Zurich, the company’s strategic themes for 2024, the future of InsurTech, the challenges of adopting disruptive technologies, & his advice for young ventures looking to collaborate with Zurich or break into the InsurTech space.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I fell into the insurance industry in 1999 & I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I saw a stat that around 80% of British CEOs were former accountants, so I thought that seemed like a good qualification to have and applied to the Big 5 & ended up getting a job at PwC, thinking I was going to be rich. But when I got there, they told me I’d be working in insurance. I realised there were lots of things in insurance that needed fixing & could be improved, which is why I ended up staying in it & why I’m still trying to do so.

We’re using computer vision to monitor and assess the 5 million commercial buildings we insure worldwide to reduce our carbon footprint. We also use it in physiotherapy to make sure people are doing it correctly & to help them be physically well, either with posture & core strength or to recover from injury quickly.

We start by identifying either the problem or the opportunity & we involve a lot of stakeholders, from the most senior down so we can see a consolidated view across the group that this will solve challenges that they care about. We then use our network to find the best startups in those spaces & that they know about out Innovation Championship to apply for it. We select the top 10-12 and put them through a validation phase to demonstrate how they can create business value for Zurich & the startup.

I see huge potential in the Internet of Things for insurance; we haven’t quite reached the tipping point for its value yet. I’d like to see startups working in that space, whether it’s in commercial insurance or more personalised insurance. Taking sensor data to understand the thing we’re insuring & to offer risk insights to the customer & to us as underwriters to prevent a claim or detect it early is an area with huge potential.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I like insurance because I think it plays a really important role in society.’

‘I focus on innovation, how new technologies & ideas can create value for Zurich.’

‘I expect we’ll see generative AI native startups coming through this year which will create amazing value.’

‘Be very clear& concise on what your value proposition is and that it’s a major part of your elevator pitch. You can have the best technology in the world, but if you can’t articulate it in a short period of time, it’s very difficult for people to understand that.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Antony Elliott, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the insurance industry, currently serves as the Global Head for Digital R&D at Zurich Insurance. His role is pivotal in driving the exploration, analysis, & early-stage adoption of disruptive technologies, with a focus on their desirability, feasibility, & viability.

ZIC - Zurich Innovation Championship

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

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