2024 Insurtech Vanguards Pitch Competition Puts Focus on Protection Gap

With P&C insurers at risk of losing market relevance amid a widening global protection gap, the third annual Guidewire Insurtech Vanguards pitch event focused specifically on insurtech innovations that help carriers address factors that left 69% of all economic losses uninsured last year. Given our global insurtech incubator program and large customer base of carriers worldwide, InsurPitch 2024 offered an ideal platform for helping insurers discover compelling new insurtech value propositions to help them solve business challenges and narrow this growing gap.

The third annual Insurtech Vanguards pitch competition gets underway on October 16 in Las Vegas 

A Competition to Help Carriers Cross the Chasm

To understand the salience of this focus, look at Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Helene alone caused up to US$17.5 billion in insured losses, but total costs could exceed US$50 billion. Whatever Milton’s final tally, it follows US$128 billion in economic losses from natural catastrophes in just the first half of 2024. And it’s not just natural catastrophes fueling this gap, either. Cyber threats are now 67% more likely than physical thefts, yet only 10% of losses from such incidents are insured. Meanwhile, 7 in 10 Gen Z consumers expect personalized, on-demand insurance—including usage-based coverage for specific events or time periods. As I wrote in a recent post, the protection gap widens when insurers struggle to offer products that address new and evolving risks and modern consumer demands. As the five insurtechs competing in InsurPitch 2024 so aptly demonstrated, innovation is the answer.

Insurtech pitch competition The scene as industry leaders convene to hear pitch presentations from the competition’s top five finalists

An InsurPitch Threepeat—With a Twist

Now in its third year, our pitch event is a tournament for members of the Guidewire Insurtech Vanguards incubator program. It’s an initiative designed to help carriers learn about and leverage insurtech value propositions that align with their strategic objectives, while Guidewire scouts potential new members of its industry-leading partner marketplace. While this competition has always been global, 2024 marked the first year we’ve hosted pitch events outside the U.S.—expanding to Sydney, Australia, and Dublin, Ireland. This year’s U.S. event took place on October 16 at Chéri Rooftop, Paris Hotel, in Las Vegas during the ITC conference. The event was sponsored by PwC.

Pinpoint Predictive takes to the InsurPitch stage during the live pitch competition 

In keeping with its focus, participants submitted 90-second videos specifically showcasing their solution’s value in addressing factors contributing to the protection gap. Video entries were posted on a dedicated competition website, and Guidewire customers, partners, and employees were invited to vote for the best value proposition. The five insurtechs to receive the most votes advanced to the final pitch event, where a live audience of Guidewire customers, employees, and analysts chose the Grand Prize winner. The stakes: a chance to be showcased in the Demo Theater at Connections 2024—a gathering of over 3,200 top insurance executives, investors, and industry press.

SnapRefund vies for the chance to be showcased in the Demo Theater during Connections 2024 

Since 2022, our InsurPitch competition websites have drawn over 15,000 visitors and more than 9,000 votes. And it’s easy to see why. Because modern insurance platforms like Guidewire enable carriers to tap the latest insurtech innovations, carriers are eager to find cutting-edge insurtech innovations that help them gain a competitive advantage.

InsurPitch becomes an institution: Kicking off our third annual U.S. pitch event in Las Vegas 

Sizing Up Insurtech Opportunities—and Seizing Them 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, technology themes to emerge from InsurPitch 2024 included generative AI, predictive analytics, and digital payments. All can play crucial roles in risk assessment, underwriting, claims, regulatory compliance, and fraud detection. The finalists, in alphabetical order, were:

Faura

Thanks to the evolving nature of catastrophic weather events, carriers and agents are missing out on billions in premiums because they don’t understand the risk. Faura’s loss control solutions help insurers write more profitable business in disaster-prone areas while helping policyholders reduce their risks.

Floatbot

Floatbot automates up to 80% of first-notice-of-loss (FNOL) processes and streamlines support with voice- or text-based AI agents and automated claims status updates to reduce the cost of claims FNOL from US$45 to less than US$5. By increasing efficiencies, Floatbot can help reduce operational costs by 40%.

Pinpoint Predictive

Leveraging trillions of non-traditional behavioral factors, Pinpoint’s AI-powered loss predictions and risk scores help carriers improve loss ratios by 3 to 10 points by assessing individual risk profiles before pricing and underwriting even begin. The goal: make coverage more accessible, fair, and profitable.

SnapRefund

Digital payment capabilities are critical to modern business. SnapRefund’s digital billing and payment processing solutions enable flexible claims payments—including instant payouts accessible through email links—and simplified billing workflows for invoicing, collecting signatures, and remitting payments.

Synergetics

Gaining the most value from generative AI means leveraging it throughout the insurance value chain. Synergetics’ GenAI-based platform enables carriers to deploy specialized AI agents for accurate, automated risk evaluation, claims intake, regulatory compliance, fraud detection, and more.

A Vanguard Victory for Faura

Despite the urgency of the protection gap, the vibe at Chéri Rooftop was optimistic. As industry luminaries gathered to hear the pitches, there was a sense that whatever challenges our industry faces, innovation will help conquer them. After leading this third annual InsurPitch competition to completion, I’m familiar with just how hard it can be for attendees to cast a vote for the best value proposition out of five world-class options. Ultimately, the honor went to:  

Faura

Faura takes Grand Prize as our 2024 Guidewire Insurtech Vanguards pitch event comes to a close 

Third Time’s a Charm? More Like a Warm-Up Act

With that, the 2024 Insurtech Vanguards InsurPitch season has made its final mic drop. But we’re really just getting started. Prospective Vanguards in Europe and APAC should stay tuned for announcements on our 2025 competition schedule. And the clock just hit restart for insurtechs in the U.S.: You’ve got roughly 12 months to perfect your pitches. Think you’ve got what it takes to become a Guidewire Insurtech Vanguard? Learn more and apply here.

Team Guidewire and PwC: A Heartfelt Thank You

As always, it’s virtually impossible to adequately capture the magnitude of contributions made by every individual who helps bring our InsurPitch competitions to life. Special thanks to Cecilia Bautista-Sablan, Tony Chang, Shannon Spies, Eric Apse, Matthew Wolff, Laura McKenzie and the rest of Teams Guidewire and PwC—as well as judges Imran Illyas, PwC; Jay Grayson, Guidewire; Matt Sigman, Bamboo Insurance; Gary Leyden, InsTech.ie; and Anna Cranney, Insurtech Australia. You are Vanguards among Vanguards in my eyes!

Watch video from the event here: