Zurich Innovation Championship 2024

Zurich Insurance collaborates globally with startups to co-create new value propositions, going beyond product distribution, and focuses on delivering innovative services and products.

Challenges

• Life & Health
  • The Life and Health challenge centers on finding innovative, long-term solutions to meet the diverse and evolving needs of customers throughout their lives. They seek ideas that boost insurance awareness, enhance customization, improve customer experience, streamline distribution, and drive innovation to benefit Zurich and its partners in the health and life insurance sector.
• Commercial Insurance
  • The Commercial Insurance challenge seeks solutions to strengthen Zurich’s role as a trusted partner in an evolving risk landscape. They aim to enhance transparency, accountability, risk management, and sustainability transition through innovation and trust-building with the commercial clients.
• Retail P&C
  • The Retail, Property, and Casualty challenge focuses on enhancing partnerships through technology-driven communication, channel optimization, and mutual growth. They’re keen on solutions that foster integration and collaboration within emerging ecosystems, enabling innovative offerings to meet evolving customer needs.
• Digital Simplification
  • The Digital Simplification challenge aims to accelerate Zurich’s transformation through modernization, automation, and advanced data analytics. By digitizing core operations, they prioritize efficiency, customer-centricity, and employee empowerment, inviting innovative startups to co-create the future of insurance with them.

What can I get from the program?

• Meet with key decision-makers
  • Access to Zurich’s global executive leaders and local decision-makers who will sponsor you. Connect with suitable stakeholders to accelerate the journey.
• Access Zurich’s markets worldwide
  • Boost your startup’s global reach with the program and tap into Zurich’s vast international network in 150+ markets.
• Equity Free Project Funding
  • Get access to up to USD 100k budget in project funding to test and pilot the joint solution.
• Access to Industry Know-How
  • Gain valuable insights and expertise to navigate the complex insurance landscape and accelerate your initiative to new heights.

Who are they looking for?

• Innovation beyond insurance
  • They understand that, at first glance, it might seem like insurance and innovation are two different worlds. Here’s where they ask you to think twice: insurance has been undergoing an exciting (digital) transformation and there’s a plethora of areas where innovation is absolutely key.
• no matter where you are in your journey
  • In short: The Innovation Championship caters to startups at every stage of growth! In the latest editions, they collaborated with a diverse range of startups.
• These key ingredients are essential for a fruitful application to the program:
  • Proven Operative Solution: To make the most of the accelerator, having a working solution is a prerequisite. They offer opportunities to test your solution internally or with the customers, and if you’ve already validated your solution with a customer, that’s a significant advantage.
  • Scalability: They’re looking for startups that are ready to roll out or are willing to expand their capacities to deliver value across the various Zurich Business Units within the next 2 years. This scalability is crucial for tapping into the full potential of the collaboration.
  • Customer-Centric Approach: Customer-centricity is at the core of the program. They expect all startup value propositions to be designed and evolved using Human-Centric Design criteria. This means that understanding and addressing customer needs is paramount in the collaborative efforts.

Who can participate?

• They invite startups and scaleups from all stages of maturity to participate with products and solutions that are relevant to one of the defined challenges.

For more information, visit Zurich.