The 4th edition of Hackquarters X, featuring the Hackzone Insurtech Global Meetup took place as a part of our Hackzone Scale Up Acceleration Program with Allianz on 3 November! Bringing together global insurtech leaders and innovators, the event helped understand insurtech-related regulations and opportunities while discussing the shifts and trends in the Europe and MENA region from the VC’s point of view. 

Kaan Akın, Founder and CEO of Hackquarters kicked off the Global Meetup event by providing the details on the program and its benefits. He talked about how since working with Allianz, they have received 167 applications, with 35 in the pipeline and 26 selected to participate in the HackZone Scale-Up Accelerator Program. ‍

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Akın invited Chairperson of the Board of Allianz Sigorta, Cansen Başaran-Symes to the stage. In her speech, she provided insights into Allianz’s innovation and digital growth strategy, mentioning how they aim to create value and always keep an entrepreneurial perspective. She added, “We are moving forward to build the Allianz of the future with digitization, by going from good to excellent with the promise that we are there for you in every stage of your life.”

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The event continued with the Head of Allianz France Corporate Venture Capital, Baptiste Mercier plays a critical role in Allianz investing anywhere from 500K to 10M€ in European tech companies, from Seed to Series C. Mercier provided insights into the insurtech scene in France and the investment opportunities in Europe. He stated, “In France, 2021; 75% of investment dedicated to insurtech were based on only 2 deals. To have more unicorns and winners next year, the top of the funnel needs to be large.”

In the first panel of our Global Meetup, Nhi Huynh, the Platforms & Acquisitions Manager of Allianz X, and Mathilda Strom, Deputy CEO of BIMA came together to talk about the regulations, potentials, and challenges that insurtech is faced with. Nhi talked about how the amount of investment insurtech and fintech have been receiving in the past few years is starting to look up. Strom joined in explaining the barriers surrounding insurtech on both the corporate and consumer side. 

The second panel of the evening featured expert investors Florian Graillot from astorya.vc, Khaled Ismail from HIMangel, and Kaan Akın as the moderator. The three shared and discussed the latest trends in insurtech happening around MENA and Europe, from the investors’ perspective. Florian and Khalid both stressed the importance of early-stage funding in insurtech. Khaled talked about how insurance, as we know it in Europe and western countries, differs from how it actually is in the Middle East and Africa, especially in terms of reach, and that the products of insurtech might work more on prevention than the insurance itself. Florian mentioned that both insurance and reinsurance companies need a place in the value chain; “If you consider that the job of an insurance player is to carry the risk, that’s the current job of a reinsurance company. So the question is, what’s the position inside the value chain for both the insurance and the reinsurance company?”

The event concluded with a Q&A and Kaan Akın’s closing speech where he thanked all the participants for joining the meetup event.