Blink launches Business Interruption solution developed in Lloyd’s Lab Accelerator

Irish InsurTech Blink launches new business interruption solution developed within the prestigious Lloyd’s Lab innovation accelerator programme

Open-banking validation, real-time impact assessment and automated pay-outs hurricane non-damage parametric insurance can cut average claim process time by up to 95%

Cork, Ireland (Nov. 19, 2020) – Irish InsurTech Blink, will today present the latest offering in its suite of parametric insurance solutions to an audience including Lloyd’s market, insurance and reinsurance experts and mentors of the Lloyd’s Lab innovation accelerator programme. “Blink Interruption” is the culmination of 10 weeks intensive work on the prestigious course, on which Blink led the charge of participants by developing a market-ready offering which can cut average business interruption claims processing time by up to 95%.^[1]

The Hurricane Non-Damage Parametric Insurance solution provides liquidity to small and medium-sized businesses in the immediate aftermath of an insured event (i.e. a hurricane), thereby reducing overall claims totals as a direct result of early intervention. It uses automated financial validation and immediate pay-out solutions to allow businesses to get back on their feet just days after the event occurs.

Blink Co-Founder & CEO Paul Prendergast echoed the outlook of John Neal, Lloyd’s CEO, who in a recent report on “Building simpler insurance products to better protect customers”^[2] spoke of the global industry imperative to “accelerate our efforts to build simpler insurance products that are more easily understood by our customers”.

Prendergast spoke in advance of the virtual presentation of the product, “Following a disaster, 90% of smaller companies fail within a year unless they can resume operations within 5 days. Blink Interruption offers real-time claim activation and pay-out solutions in the immediate aftermath, making it possible for businesses to recover and reopen. Its appeal is in its simplicity. Critically, it allows our insurance partners to offer cover through a streamlined claims validation platform that immediately begins measuring the impact of a disaster on a business, automates pay-outs and demonstrates to customers that insurers are there for them, when they need it most.

This Lloyd’s Lab experience has been invaluable to us. We have collaborated with some of the world’s best minds in insurance innovation, and have delivered a market-ready product at the end of just 10 weeks. This is a huge achievement and a testament to the programme itself”.

Blink Interruption – Key Features

• Open Banking Validation: real-time monitoring and large-scale integration with 11,500 banks and credit unions enables automatic claim validation and is sufficient to prove the hurricane’s impact on the business.
• Early liquidity provided post-event will allow businesses to recover and reopen. Prendergast advised, “Traditional business interruption claims on average take between 6 months and 2 years by which time, it is too late. Blink Interruption offers early intervention when it matters most to business owners.”

George Beattie, Lloyd’s Lab mentor and Head of Incubation Underwriting at Beazley, and global insurer with offices in Europe, Asia, and across North America added, “Blink have built an innovative concept in 10 weeks that offers a novel solution to a real challenge facing our industry- providing fast business interruption validation and claims processing. The product’s simplicity, transparency and real-time service enables insurers to support customers in their time of need. The solution offers insurers significant potential in enhancing the quality of claims servicing- an essential element of customer success. Beazley has ambitious plans with regards to product innovation and parametric products form an exciting part of the landscape. As a result of mentoring Blink during their Lab experience, we are looking forward to exploring parametric opportunities together and seeing how we can deliver ground-breaking new products to market”.

Jason Walsh, CPP Group Chief Executive, said: “The team at Blink, supported by the mentors participating in the Lloyd’s Lab, have done an incredible job in turning their concept into a reality in a matter of weeks. The pace of delivery demonstrates the cutting edge innovation skills at the heart of Blink. Creating a business interruption solution opens up a significant new market for Blink and will make it quicker and easier for insurers to support firms with financial assistance.”

How It Works

• Blink continually monitors national weather systems, tracks hurricane formation and projected landfall path.
• Blink proactively confirms insured party was in hurricane path.
• Blink measures the financial impact, verifies the business impact and confirms the policy cover levels. Blink issues payment to the policy holder.
• Blink validates business impact by tracking business activity via open banking and accounting software integrations.
• Validation process is repeated daily and ongoing business impact confirmed.
• Claim pay-outs commence after 1 week, to an amount and duration that is completely configurable subject to partner requirements.

Blink earned its place as one of just 10 InsurTechs selected for Lloyd’s Lab following a competitive ‘virtual pitch’ process which saw 140 of the world’s insurance industry trailblazers vying for a place.

Founded in 2016, Blink was acquired by AIM listed CPP Group just 6 months after it was set up. It is now a world leader in parametric insurance product innovation, transforming its clients’ complex offerings into superior service experiences with simple, intuitive, parametric products. The company partners globally with insurance and financial services companies, driving innovation in Asia, Europe and North America.

Notes

1. RIMS Business Interruption Survey 2017. 40% of respondents experienced Business Interruption loss within 5 years. 74% of those claims took between 6 months and 2 years to settle.

2. Lloyd’s: Building Simpler Insurance Products To Better Protect Customers.

About Blink Parametric

Paul Prendergast (CEO) and Peter Bermingham (CTO) founded Blink in 2016, an InsurTech start-up focussed on a flight disruption travel insurance solution to prove its parametric platform. It became the first InsurTech in the FCA (UK) Sandbox programme and was acquired by CPP Group (AIM CPP) in March 2017. Since then Blink made TheINSURTECH100 for 2019 and again in 2020, an annual list of the worlds’ most innovative InsurTech companies having expanded its services platform to become a world leader in parametric insurance product innovation. It transforms its clients’ complex offerings into superior service experiences with simple, intuitive, parametric products. Its proven platform serves as the execution conduit for increasingly Covid-19 prone, high frequency, low severity claims across Commercial and Travel as well as Climate, Energy and IoT sectors. It successfully partners globally with insurance and financial services companies in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. For more information, visit blinkparametric.com.

The Blink Innovation team includes world-class software developers, tech architecture design specialists and experts in business processes, with a blend of more than 30 years’ experience. Together they demonstrate tremendous creativity, passion and commitment through the pursuit of agile, innovative parametric InsurTech solutions. Blink Innovation excel in effective project management, best-practice collaboration and integration to ensure the successful launch of transformative, compliant parametric insurance solutions. The team not only delivers on partner goals but takes care to articulate and deliver on a superior service experience for clients. For more information, visit blinkblink.io.

About CPP Group

CPP Group makes millions of lives easier and better protected. We partner with large scale companies across the globe to understand their customers’ needs and meet them through a range of popular ancillary products and services which add value to their core business. Specialising in the financial services and insurance sectors, we achieve long-term, sustainable growth through innovation, specialist digital capability and a culture that brings out the best in our people. We are listed on AIM, operated by the London Stock Exchange.

For more information, visit international.cppgroup.com.

About the Lloyd’s Lab

The Lloyd’s Lab is the home of InsurTech and is a leading hub for technology-led innovation, with more than 900 applications from international InsurTechs to join the Lab in its first two years. Successful companies join the Lab for a ten-week programme, where they work with insurers in the Lloyd’s market to develop and test their ideas, using the expertise and experience of their mentors to add value to the Lloyd’s market.

Since the launch of the Future at Lloyd’s strategy, the Lab has expanded to promote greater collaboration between Lloyd’s expert underwriters and brokers, customers and capital providers.

About Lloyd’s

Lloyd’s is the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace. Through the collective intelligence and risk-sharing expertise of the market’s underwriters and brokers, Lloyd’s helps to create a braver world. The Lloyd’s market provides the leadership and insight to anticipate and understand risk, and the knowledge to develop relevant, new and innovative forms of insurance for customers globally. It offers the efficiencies of shared resources and services in a marketplace that covers and shares risks from more than 200 territories, in any industry, at any scale. And it promises a trusted, enduring partnership built on the confidence that Lloyd’s protects what matters most: helping people, businesses and communities to recover in times of need.Lloyd’s began with a few courageous entrepreneurs in a coffeeshop. Three centuries later, the Lloyd’s market continues that proud tradition, sharing risk in order to protect, build resilience and inspire courage everywhere. For more information, visit www.lloyds.com.

About Beazley

Beazley plc (BEZ.L) is a specialist insurer with three decades of experience in providing clients with the highest standards of underwriting and claims service worldwide. All Beazley insurance businesses are rated A (Excellent) by A.M. Best. Beazley is a proud participant in the Lloyd’s market, the largest and oldest insurance market in the world. Through the Lloyd’s broker network and the market’s trading licenses, they are able to access a wide range of insurance and reinsurance businesses from around the world. Their client base is broadly diversified by type, by size and by geography. Clients are leaders in many of the markets in which they operate. Over three decades, Beazley has evolved from a specialist Lloyd’s syndicate transacting business exclusively from the Beazley “box” at Lloyd’s in London to a global insurer with offices in Europe, Asia, and across North America. For more information, visit www.beazley.com.

SOURCE: Blink Innovation via Fuller Marketing

Tags: accelerator, Beazley, Blink Innovation, Business Interruption, CPP Group, launch, Lloyd’s
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