North America insurtechs take gold and silver at the Zurich Innovation Championship

Claims processing and climate risk modeling take center stage in the effort to identify innovative risk management solutions for customers.

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Zurich North America

Oct 21, 2020, 10:45 ET

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Oct. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zurich North America Insurance is celebrating today as its two regional finalists have come out on top as the Gold and Silver winners of the Zurich Innovation Championship global finals. Zurich Insurance Group announced the top winners at a virtual ceremony today, bringing to a close the year-long insurtech competition geared toward start-ups that seek to solve some of society's biggest challenges and provide protection from emerging risks.

"Congratulations to all the participants and particularly to the two North America winners, Claimflo and Jupiter Intelligence," said Zurich North America COO Anurag Batta. "These companies represent the spirit of innovation that we continue to foster as we look for new ways to bring solutions to our customers."

The global competition – now in its second year – is designed to create collaborations between Zurich and insurtechs and bring new ideas and energy to the forefront. The competition offers the best and brightest startups and entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with Zurich to find innovative solutions that can enhance the way they serve customers' needs. These winners reflect an alignment with Zurich's commitment to a deep understanding of data analytics and the value that digital solutions can bring to insurers and their customers. They emerged from a field that began in 2019 with more than 1,350 entrants.

Gold winner Claimflo is a processing platform for property and casualty claims developed by New York-based fintech Safekeep. Harnessing artificial intelligence to transform insurance claims processing is what drives Claimflo, which uses machine learning to determine what claims have potential for subrogation as well as those with signs of fraud. It has the potential to increase efficiency and cost effectiveness in identifying and processing claims for investigations and recovery.

Silver winner, North America-based Jupiter Intelligence delivers risk-focused and actionable climate-related insights, which have the potential to enhance efforts to create climate change resilience for Zurich customers. Their catastrophic risk modeling can help companies manage and quantify physical climate-risk change across their portfolio of global assets. It also can narrow its focus to assessing a single asset as specific as an individual piece of equipment like a power substation.

"These dynamic companies have what it takes to help augment our innovation capabilities in bringing value-added products and services to our customers," said Sumeet Bhatia, Head of Innovation for Zurich North America. "Claimflo provides ability to modernize claims recovery, automate and simplify workflows and provides greater transparency to customers. Jupiter provides us the opportunity to enhance climate change resilience for customers and communities. We are excited to continue the work we started with them during the competition."

"We chose the podium winners of the Zurich Innovation Championship 2020 because of their entrepreneurial spirit and potential impact they can bring," said Giovanni Giuliani, Group Head of Strategy, Innovation and Business Development, Zurich Insurance Group. "From accelerating our digital transformation and sustainability ambitions, to providing new products and services that exceed our customers' expectations. This is not the end, but the start to generate real impact."

Additional information on the Zurich Innovation Championship is available at: www.zurich.com/zic.

About Zurich
Zurich North America is one of the largest providers of insurance solutions and services to businesses and individuals. Our customers represent industries ranging from agriculture to technology and include more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500. We've backed the building of some of the most recognizable structures in North America — from the Hoover Dam to the Confederation Bridge. Our North American, LEED Platinum® headquarters is located in the Chicago area. We employ approximately 9,000 people in North America and have offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. Further information is available at www.zurichna.com.

Zurich North America is part of Zurich Insurance Group, a leading multi-line insurer that serves its customers in global and local markets. With approximately 55,000 employees, Zurich provides a wide range of property and casualty, and life insurance products and services in more than 215 countries and territories. Zurich's customers include individuals, small businesses, and mid-sized and large companies, as well as multinational corporations. The Group is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1872. The holding company, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN), is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a level I American Depositary Receipt (ZURVY) program, which is traded over-the-counter on OTCQX. Further information is available at www.zurich.com.

SOURCE Zurich North America