We are proud to have successfully delivered the HackZone Scale Up Acceleration Program for the second time. The Demo Day was an exciting event for all our stakeholders and audiences. Seeing the outcomes of our programs encourages us to feed the innovation ecosystem more and more. The Demo Day was a great scene to observe the value Hackquarters creates with all our stakeholders.

The event began with a welcoming speech given by Hackquarters Founder Kaan Akın. He shared his feelings about how good the approach of Allianz is towards startups and innovation, along with how excellent the results of the program are. The results are satisfying and motivate us to push more. In 2021, 87 startups applied to HackZone Scaleup Program. Five were selected for the program, and all of them managed successful PoCs with Allianz Turkey. In the meantime, three startups in the program closed their investment rounds. B2Metric raised $450k, Co-one raised $200k, and Uservision raised $150k.

In the next session of “Reshaping Allianz TR Innovation and Digital Growth Strategy,” Allianz Turkey COO Kaan Toker gave us insights into the approach of Allianz to innovation and digitization. “Allianz has five basic principles while making the innovation its core muscle. Agility, simplicity, reduced complexity, customer-centrism, and data orientation. Allianz Turkey partners with startups to meet the needs resulting from expectations and changing conditions. We brought available insurance and open API to the sector, and we dedicate ourselves to making these the norm. Creating digital insurance is far beyond IT; it requires a mindset for innovation. This is where startups come, and the value of the HackZone Program is emerging from here. At the same time, the exposure of startups to the sector helps them create practical approaches and solutions. Allianz, here, offers startups global opportunities and the opportunity to make the solutions live, then monetize.”

In the panel of “Allianz’s Ambition of Collaborating with Startups,” Customer Management Director of Allianz Turkey Erdem Sağlamer, Allianz Turkey CMO & Head of Digital Onur Kırcı, and Allianz Turkey CIO Evren Ayorak shared the vision of Allianz’s partnerships with startups and how they execute it. “When it comes to customer experience, emotions are indispensable. Making the product perfect isn’t enough; we need emotions. Here, innovation comes to the rescue.” Erdem Sağlamer said.

“When Allianz or any big company intends to partner with startups, tech is not enough; Culture and mindset are also crucial. That’s why we have been pushing cultural transformation in our company. HackZone Scaleup Program lets us raise innovation inside and outside us.” Onur Kırcı added.

“We looked at the structures like hackathons, challenges, etc., and decided that we don’t need events but processes. We wanted to put ourselves beyond our comfort zone; that’s why we designed the HackZone Program with Hackquarters. We’re finding our ways through successful PoCs with startups. A company can offer three things to startups while partnerships: people (mentors), data, services & tech. We get the pleasure to help startups with all our opportunities.” Evren Ayorak ended the panel. 

Lastly, Allianz Turkey Innovation Manager Hümeyra Boztunç moderated a Fireside Chat of “PoC Process & Success Stories” with alumni startups. Here are invaluable insights and experiences shared by our alumni.

B2Metric: “We founded our company in 2018, and Allianz was one of our first customers. We made a PoC with Sales and Digital Tribe to predict production for this time. We experienced other departments like underwriting and customer engagement before. It was the first time we worked on personas, and we fed the models with outside data. Also, we closed $450k investment rounds in the meantime. We will expand globally.”

Co-one: “We founded our company when we noticed the data-labeling problem in all AI models. We created value-added data-labeling processes through gamification. We gamified the sales processes with Allianz and educated the customers through the games. We are glad that all departments showed their interest in us. We had a chance to learn about corporate processes and get valuable mentorships throughout the HackZone program. With the pre-seed round in May-2021, we focused on our product. We intend to raise our seed round in the first quarter of 2022; then, we will expand globally.”

Diyetkolik: “I decided to found the company when I had a problem with my diet. We had a chance to make a successful PoC with Allianz in the health sector. Healthcare data is the most sensitive part of the insurance sector. We somehow found our way and got invaluable insights from customers who tried our product. We are happy that most of them continued to use it. Thanks to HackZone, we learned about startup-investor relations and how to expand globally. The support of Allianz professionals is also valuable.”

Otokonfor: “Our founder previously had six years of experience in insurtech entrepreneurship and exited this venture. We are digitizing the processes in the automotive sector, and we have 35 different services. With HackZone, we integrated our services to Allianz Turkey platforms to increase the loyalty of Allianz customers and customer traction to our services. We intend to raise capital to expand our services in all cities of Turkey. Currently, we are just serving in Istanbul.”

Uservision: “We founded when I realized the customer experience problems in apps and services given by most companies. With HackZone, we had a chance to launch a new product with Allianz Turkey: Survey+. The secret sauce of Survey+ that differentiates it from other survey platforms is we are conserving the data. This allows us to make multi-dimensional and much deeper and insightful analyses later. We have raised $150k from the MENA region in 2021. We incorporated it there. From now on, we are looking to expand in the region; perhaps, we will expand in Europe, as well.”