FinTechNZ and InsurTechNZ joined forces to bring members a combined Connect event, following FinTechNZ’s inaugural Annual Meeting on 1 November.
The final Connect event for 2018 was the result of a successful collaboration between FinTechNZ and InsurTechNZ, with a wide range of speakers discussing a variety of subjects in front of a highly engaged audience.
George Smith from Wallet.AI shared learnings from his journey in payments technology, joining the San Francisco-based company to develop artificial intelligence for personal financial management, after founding three of his own ventures in the payments space.
Katharina Wichmann from EY presented the findings from the recent survey her team undertook in conjunction with, MBIE and InsurTechNZ, to map the InsurTech landscape in New Zealand.
Key findings included:
- 63% of NZ InsurTechs had been founded within the past 12 months.
- 57% of NZ InsurTechs plan to grow internationally within 12 months.
- 50% of NZ InsurTechs have been formed with the intention to improve customer experience and engagement.
- There is opportunity for increased collaboration between incumbents and InsurTechs, this has not yet been full realised.
- Future trends involve leveraging digital technologies such as AI and Blockchain.
Concluding the evening, Avani Vyas of Delta Insurance, Richard Barnett, of EverEdge Global, and Nick Valentine, of DLA Piper were involved in a panel discussion on how to identify, evaluate, and manage and monetise intangible assets.
Speakers agreed that IP is multi-faceted and can include many elements such as trade secrets, know-how, supplier relationships and software code. The key to valuing IP is documentation, which is a must for any business owner considering an exit strategy.
Customer data was an interesting point for discussion, as consumers own their own data, and businesses merely have stewardship over it. The panel agreed that the relationship you have with the data and your ability to mine it can be valued as business IP, rather than the data itself which is treated as a resource.
This is where Open Banking is going to be critical to the future success of the New Zealand financial services sector, and we are already seeing positive steps between the incumbent banks and the FinTech sector, which will be explored further through FinTechNZ in 2019.
