MetLife Japan, a subsidiary of US-based life insurance major MetLife, has named six finalists in its open innovation program, collab 4.0.

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Image: MetLife Japan picks six insurtechs for collab 4.0. Photo: courtesy of Helloquence/Unsplash.com.

The program invites insurtech companies globally to scale their business with MetLife while solving some of the insurer’s biggest innovation challenges across its Japan business.

Developed by LumenLab, MetLife’s Asia innovation center, the program invites insurtech companies to compete for a ¥10 million contract1 to create and pilot solutions in areas such as customer engagement, sales, and operations with MetLife Japan.

Since launching in August, collab 4.0 has attracted 140 applications from startups based in more than 40 countries around the world. The six finalists are:

  1. Drawbridge, Inc. (United States) leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies to build democratized, people-based identity management solutions in various applications including: advertising, personalization, content management, product recommendations, risk detection, and more.
  2. Tricella, Inc. (United States) is addressing the drug adherence problem with its wireless smart pillbox. It reminds users when to take their medication and can alert family members through an app when a dose isn’t taken on time.
  3. Sasuke Financial Lab, Inc. (Japan) offers robo insurance advisor, “Donuts”, which instantly provides users recommendations on what type of cover they need and which products they should purchase after they answer only seven questions.
  4. CUBE Content Governance Global Limited (United Kingdom) provides a regulatory intelligence platform that automates the process of managing regulatory change. Global regulations are monitored and analyzed, alerting financial institutions to changes that impact their policy and procedures, across all lines of business and jurisdictions.
  5. Color Genomics, Inc. (United States) helps people know what their genes say about their risk for cancer and heart conditions, and how they might respond to medications.
  6. Knowtions Research, Inc. (Canada) unlocks messy health data to surface predictive insights for health insurers globally.

The finalists will hone their ideas over the next two months before attending the collab Summit and Demo Day in Tokyo on Dec.5 and 6, where the winner will be announced.

To help the finalists develop their solutions and enhance their understanding of MetLife’s business, they will be paired with “employee champions” who will provide tailored mentoring, underscoring MetLife’s commitment to talent development and promoting a culture of innovation.

MetLife Japan senior vice president and chief strategy officer Webster Coates said: “Collab is an opportunity to work with cutting-edge startups. Our employees work directly with the finalists to develop ideas for products and services that appeal to our customers.”

MetLife Asia CEO and chief innovation officer Zia Zaman said: “We’re excited to see collab gain momentum in this its fourth batch. We have received more diverse entries from more countries than ever before.

“These six innovative finalists know how to work with insurers, and most importantly, they know how to help us address the rising expectations of insurance customers in Asia. It will be a pleasure to work with them in the coming months.”

Source: Company Press Release