Hartford Business Journal

14 Hartford Business Journal • July 22, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Joe Cooper jcooper@hartfordbusiness.com I n a fifth-floor corner of down- town Hartford's iconic Boat Building, the city's newest cohort of insurtech startups is quickly making connections with the region's outsized insurance sector. A dozen early stage startups mi- grated downtown this year to par- ticipate in Nassau Re's new insurtech incubator, which for at least the next three years will offer domestic and in- ternational entrepreneurs more than 48,000 square feet of flexible work- space to gain clout in various emerg- ing corners of the insurance industry. Operated by entrepreneurial pro- moter Insurtech Hartford, which also helps with program development and recruitment, organizers are hopeful participating entrepreneurs will cre- ate a permanent home downtown and help grow the city's insurtech work- force as it provides them with market- ing, legal and networking opportuni- ties to score new clients and capital. The so-called Nassau Re/Imagine incubator regularly sets up meetings between entrepreneurs and potential investors and insurance companies looking to develop a pilot program to streamline their services. Nassau Re's social-media channels also showcase the startups through promotional videos and podcast in- terviews airing on Spotify. Many of the dozen startups selected into the five-month-old program are newcomers to Hartford, with just one hailing from Connecticut (Simsbury) and roughly half from outside the U.S., including Ukraine, Canada and Aus- tralia, according to organizers. Nassau Re/ Imagine joins a growing network of incubator, ac- celerator and tech- training programs in the Capital City, including Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator, reSET Social Enterprise Trust and a recently announced medical-technology and digital-health accelerator spearheaded by Hartford HealthCare and several partners. There's also incubator and co- working venue Upward Hartford, which hosts Hartford InsurTech Hub, run by London-based Startupbootcamp. While each program is distinct, there are some common threads. For example, Startupbootcamp will also run the recently announced healthcare accelerator, to be located at Constitution Plaza. InsurTech Hartford, a networking and professional- services provider founded by AXA XL Vice President Stacey Brown, is separate from the Hartford InsurTech Hub program, though both entities are housed in the Stilts Building and hold program- ming and events at Upward Hart- ford's space there. Some of the incubator programs have received state funds, while oth- ers — including Nassau Re/Imag- ine — have not. There's also been overlap among participants in the programs. Several members of Nassau Re's inaugural cohort had already been in Connecticut as of last year, when they participated in Hartford InsurTech Hub's week-long Selection Days pro- gram, which connects entrepreneurs with area insurance mentors for prod- uct and marketing development and potential partnerships. Meet the cohort Marnus van Heerden, a South Africa native and co-founder of peer-to-peer insurance app Pineapple, participated in the Hartford InsurTech Hub last year before being accepted into Nas- sau Re's incubator this spring. His startup now has dual headquar- ters in South Africa and Hartford. The Pineapple app, launched in 2018, allows users to insure nearly any indi- vidual item in under a minute with the snap of a mobile phone camera. For example, users looking for insurance for their phone, laptop, bike, drone or watch, can take a photo and Pineapple's artificial intelligence will detect what kind of product it is and categorize it. Input how much the item is worth and the app automati- cally calculates a premium payment. After submitting credit card informa- tion, the user is insured. The app al- ready has 14,500 users in South Africa. Pineapple still has to tweak its app to ensure it complies with domestic regulations, Van Heerden said, but he hopes to launch the product in the U.S. later this year. Pineapple recently inked a partner- ship with an insurance carrier in Greater Hartford — a deal it plans to announce publicly in the next two months. The incubator has connected 29-year-old Van Heerden and fellow co-founder Matthew Elan Smith, both Startup Boost Hartford has its next crop of insurtech hopefuls Marnus van Heerden, co-founder of South Africa's Pineapple app, is participating in Nassau Re's Hartford incubator. Renu Ann Joseph, founder of Switzerland-based Luminant Analytics, was the first entrepreneur selected to Nassau Re's new insurtech incubator program, which will run for at least the next three years. In the photo, Joseph is standing in the incubator's 48,000-square-foot space in Nassau Re's Boat Building in downtown Hartford. HBJ PHOTOS | JOE COOPER PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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