Zurich Innovation Championship: busting the myths
TechnologyArticleNovember 10, 2021
Whatever stereotypes exist about startups can be debunked with just three words: Zurich Innovation Championship. Expect the unexpected as we once again hunt for the best and brightest.
Welcome to the wonderful, eclectic – sometimes even a little weird – world of the Zurich Innovation Championship. It’s all about finding good solutions, meaning ways to address customer needs in a changing world where (inevitably) technology plays a part. Conforming to stereotypes is not essential. While some entrants might drink artisanal beer (or if based in Europe, a beverage called yerba mate), you can bet your fleece power vest that many of the latest crop of innovators, from over 80 countries and territories, will have unusual attributes, and offer unexpected, even unorthodox solutions that might be just the thing that Zurich Insurance Group (‘Zurich’) is looking for in its annual global contest, which kicked off for the third time on November 2, 2021.
Grandfathers of invention
One of the most amazing things about the Zurich Innovation Championship is its wealth of diversity. “Some are founders who have worked for governments or big tech companies, or large corporations. Some have even worked for insurers. Others come from top universities,” says Joel Agard, Innovation Director at Zurich. “We have entries from all over the world, and in all age groups.”
Recent candidates have included three co-founders of Pops Diabetes Care, one of the top finalists in the previous contest. Pops, based in Minneapolis, is proof that not all startups are developed by youngsters. The three founders together boast a combined 115 years’ business experience. Two of the three are grandfathers. Pops’ winning solution, a smart-phone blood sugar monitor, was hatched during a classic middle-age right-of-passage: a guys’ fishing trip. Their aha moment came when one of the trio, Lonny Stormo, a person with diabetes, struggled to check his blood sugar while one of the group reeled in a walleye pike. The trio wondered: What if monitoring blood sugar could be made easier? Stormo, along with co-founders Curt Christensen and Dan Davis, set up Pops in 2013. Hardly a garage in sight. Just a very human application. “Our mission is to change lives. We really celebrate every time somebody starts using Pops – we celebrate them as an owner, because they’re owning their lives,” says Stromo.
Pops was one of over 1,300 entries in the 2020 Championship. Although based in the U.S., it entered in Australia, a canny move that helped to bring it to the attention of Zurich’s business in that country, where Zurich had just launched a new wellcare initiative. “Through the Innovation Challenge, Zurich is setting up a way to introduce disruption,” says Stormo. “The contest is brilliant because they (Zurich) don’t just do the innovation challenge and give you a prize, take a picture and say, ‘see you later.’”
For Pops, that hands-on involvement means working with Zurich on a pilot now being launched in Australia. The blood sugar app will first be offered to Zurich employees, and if successful could be made available to customers, too. “We are very excited that our collaboration with Pops is moving to the ultimate stage, which is interacting with our customers and adding value to them through the Pops platform. Diabetes is a major worldwide health issue, and it is important to Zurich as a business that we are looking at ways to help make a difference,” according to Brendan Norton, Head of Customer & Adviser Experience within Zurich’s Life & Investments business, part of Zurich Financial Services Australia Limited.
Kielbasa nights
A UK finalist in the 2020 Championship, Tensorflight has Polish roots. Its operations in the U.S. serve as the main gateway for clients and investors, while many of its technical staff and operations are in Poland, where bonding exercises include Kielbasa dinners. Both of its co-founders, Robert Kozikowski, and Zbigniew Wojna, already knew each other from their studies at the University of Warsaw. Kozikowski worked for a time in Silicon Valley, while Wojna worked and studied in London, where his research focused on machine vision. Tensorflight’s technology relies on reading images and image recognition. It came to Zurich’s attention through the Championship, and has since gone on to develop a real-life solution for Zurich in the UK.
According to Mark Budd, Head of Innovation at Zurich in the UK, Zurich is currently using Tensorflight’s know-how to analyze the characteristics, and relevant risks of insuring school buildings in the UK. A pilot that provided information on about 3,000 schools has so far saved Zurich about 500 hours in manual work. Most of the schools, for ages five to 16 years, have more than one building, and Tensorflight’s technology is being rolled out to – in total – about 20,000 schools across the UK. That’s about 50,000 buildings. This could ultimately lead to thousands of hours of effort saved. “Using Tensorflight’s technology can remove friction from the customer experience, improve accuracy and allow us to be more competitive in the marketplace,” says Budd.
Dog-gone good!
There are companies with the usual C-suites, and then there is Safekeep, whose claims processing technology, ClaimFlo, was the top winner in the Zurich Innovation Championship in 2020. Co-founder and CEO Jeff To has a master’s in engineering, but spent some formative school years playing bass guitar. Safekeep, which he set up in 2019, has also managed to succeed while preserving a certain joie de vivre. That includes a Chief Happiness Officer – one who is super loyal and has a nose for business: literally, a dog. Sprinkles is a six-pound Yorkshire Terrier who also acts as unofficial head of building security. “She will bark wildly at doorbells and intruders,” says To. Her contributions to corporate success include offering snuggles to those having a rough (or, should we say, a ‘ruff’ day?), and mindfulness sessions. Contemplative walk, anyone? Her metrics include delivering “1,000 pounds of happiness to Safekeep,” says To.
Jeff To, co-founder of Safekeep, and a Zurich Innovation Championship winner.
ClaimFlo’s technology may also deliver happiness to insurers seeking to recover losses if negligence by others causes damage: fires where a manufacturer is to blame for faulty fire suppression systems, or a motor accident in which the customer receives payment, but another driver is at fault, for instance. ClaimFlo’s technology can quickly identify patterns that suggest opportunities for recovery. “ClaimFlo has the potential to increase efficiency and cost effectiveness in identifying and processing claims for investigations and recovery,” according to Stephen Di Cicco, Claims Innovation Champion in Zurich’s North America Commercial business unit. Zurich completed a proof-of-concept with Claimflo in 2020, and began a live pilot in 2021.
Silicon Singapore
Based in Singapore, 360F’s founders are hardly typical techies. Co-founder Michael Gerber holds degrees in physics and insurance science and worked as a consultant with a major global consulting group before becoming a CEO. Co-founder Clarie Kwa began working at a multinational corporation before earning an MBA, and then worked for over a decade as a financial adviser.
While 360F wasn’t a finalist in the Championship, the company – motto ‘advisory revised’ – through the contest still caught the attention of people scouting for innovation talent at Zurich’s regional business in the Middle East. Working with 360F, Zurich is now co-developing software to support advisers offering financial planning and investment advice.
Learn more!
At its heart, the Championship wants to celebrate what can go right. That means welcoming quirky, unorthodox, and unusual ideas that might be just what Zurich, and its customers are looking for. The latest Championship is open for entries through December 23, 2021. So, here’s to all you innovators out there. We raise a glass to everyone who dares to think outside the box. The glass we lift might even contain yerba mate tea. More information about the contest can be found here.
Read more about two of our finalists in a new book published to mark the reopening of Zurich’s global headquarters in 2021: Neta Rozy portrait, and Isabelle Rottmann portrait.
