MetLife now accepting applications for annual insurtech accelerator

MetLife is looking for insurtechs to develop new products tailored to customer engagement, sales and operations across its businesses in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

The carrier has announced “collab 3.0 EMEA,” a global innovation program inviting industry entrepreneurs around the world to compete for $100,000 in cash, and develop offerings alongside MetLife employees that tackle some of life insurance’s biggest challenges.

Collab 3.0 EMEA was created by the carrier’s Asia innovation office, Lumen Lab. The program follows two previous accelerators held in Singapore and Japan since 2016. Combined, the two attracted 250 applications from insurtechs from more than 35 countries. MetLife has awarded more than half a million dollars’ worth of contracts to startups through collab in Asia to date, it says. In January, the company also launched a U.S.-based accelerator in Cary, N.C.

“We are serious about transforming the insurance industry and the way we interact with our customers – but we know we cannot do it alone,” said Zia Zaman, LumenLab CEO and chief innovation officer of MetLife Asia. “You can never innovate faster than the market. We are building a stronger ecosystem for the future by engaging insurtechs through programs like collab.”

From this year’s list of applicants, MetLife will select eight finalists. Each will develop new products with MetLife employees and demo their offering at collab Summit EMEA to be held in London on July 11.

Also see: How MetLife will ramp up digital innovation in 2018