Meet the 2023 Go:Tech Awards winners: Lloyd’s Lab

The prestigious Incubator or Accelerator of the Year award at the 2023 Go:Tech Awards was claimed by Lloyd’s Lab.

Being subjected to fierce competition for the top prize, Lloyd’s Lab emerged victorious and proudly reports that its participating startups have collectively raised over $1.2bn (£925m) in investments, with many achieving successful exits. This incubator has made a positive impact on hundreds of companies fortunate enough to be a part of its program.

We caught up with Rosie Denée, who runs the Lloyd’s Lab, after scooping the Go:Tech Awards trophy to talk inspiration, breakthroughs and more.

Can you share with us the inspiration behind your winning business and how it addresses a specific industry challenge or opportunity?

Lloyd’s is proud of its reputation for innovation in insurance. The Lloyd’s Market has a history of innovative firsts, from automobiles to satellites to cyber, and is now the market leader in cyber risk insurance. In an era of increasingly volatile risks, Lloyd’s needs to be adaptable and increase its relevance to customers whose risks are changing.

The Lloyd’s Lab was set up by the Lloyd’s Corporation in 2018 to increase the pace of successful innovation in the Lloyd’s Market, in a fast-track, fast-fail environment. Twice a year the Lloyd’s Lab runs a 10-week long insurtech accelerator programme, allowing innovative ideas to gain traction and success in the world’s oldest and largest insurance market.

Could you describe the key milestones or breakthroughs you achieved during the development of your project, and how they contributed to its success?

Since its inception, the Lloyd’s Lab has overseen ten Cohorts and supported over 120 companies not only in their development but to penetrate at pace in the Lloyd’s Market. The accelerator’s USP is its unparalleled access to Lloyd’s Market experts and senior leadership, from across the 50+ insurers, 300+ brokers & various service providers operating in and around the Lloyd’s Market. To date over 450 mentors have collaborated with Cohort participants.

Lloyd’s Lab participants are partnered with 5-10 mentors each, based on the mentor’s needs and selection, giving them expertise that will work with them to co-develop the proposition to their mutual benefit. Mentor insights can often result in significant refinement or even a change of direction. One such example includes Cohort three participant Allphins: mentor guidance resulted in changing their platform from one that provided data to insurers, to a solution which transforms risk data into exposure insights.

As a winner at the Go:Tech Awards, what advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs or innovators who are looking to make a difference in the technology sector?

Always make sure your solutions are developed with the ‘problem’ front of mind. Too many times, we see people trying to develop solutions with no clear understanding of what the customer’s problem actually is. This approach will only take you so far, but if you want to scale you need to make sure you are addressing an actual problem.

Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs considering entering the Go:Tech Awards in the future?

Work on something you are passionate about. The start-up life is a rollercoaster, the highs are amazing but you need something to get you through the inevitable lows – passion is the secret sauce that gets a lot of founders through.

Looking ahead, what are your future plans for your business?

The Lloyd’s innovation team is currently actioning plans to amplify the Lloyd’s Lab by actively responding to Lloyd’s customers’ biggest challenges. Partnering clients with Lloyd’s Lab Alumni that have the appetite and expertise to address clients’ challenges will be part of this process.

Financially, Lloyd’s is creating a model that would enable the Lloyd’s Lab to deliver profitable growth of the Lloyd’s Market and increase the sustainability of revenue by easing capacity deployment for Cohort participants. We look to further embed this model by ensuring Lloyd’s continues to remove barriers to innovation for the Market and creating more opportunities for the Market to engage with the Lloyd’s Lab Alumni.

We are exploring leveraging Lloyd’s global presence. Firstly we are seeking to support the growth of each Lloyd’s Lab Alumni by connecting them with our teams across the globe. Our teams can support Lloyd’s Lab Alumni in navigating regional regulations, facilitating introductions to local key stakeholders and supporting local promotion in countries across the world. Secondly, we recognise that each global region has unique issues that insurance solutions can help address. As such, we are looking to launch a regional-specific theme for each cohort going forward, which will be sponsored by the corresponding regional Lloyd’s office. In our next cohort, we have a theme looking for solutions to address the cyber and climate protection gap in Europe.