Open-F@b Call4Ideas 2017 is looking for innovations in preventive insurance

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According to PwC’s Connected Insurance report, the sales of connected healthcare wearables will hit 245 million units by 2019 and smart home devices will hit somewhere between 500 and 700 million units by 2020.

This presents a great opportunity for insurers to use predictive and preventive analytics to reduce risk. That is why Open-F@b Call4Ideas 2017, an international contest run by insurer BNP Paribas Cardif in Italy, is looking for the most innovative technology startups that fit into this year’s theme of preventive insurance. Applications are open until October 23.

The contest, in partnership with insurance technology platform InsuranceUp.it and with collaboration from BNP Paribas’ OpenUp, a digital platform connecting BNP Paribas employees working on innovation or business topics with startups worldwide, and fintech consulting platform Medici, is interested in startups that are developing predictive models and leveraging the power of interconnected devices for preventive insurance solutions rather than reimbursement.

A committee of experts including BNP Paribas executives and academics will select a number of startups to work with the BNP Paribas Cardif R&D team to help hone and develop their ideas for the market.

All finalists will pitch their innovations during a final event in Italy, where the three best ideas will be chosen for further development and eventual commercialisation.

Since 2014, Open-F@b Call4Ideas has witnessed many success stories. Croatian startup Amodo was one of the winners of the 2015 edition of Call4ideas. It created a platform that builds customer profiles based on smartphone data to better anticipate a customer’s risk. It has since raised €500,000 in funding.

England’s Spixii competed in last year’s contest and developed an insurance chatbot to communicate with customers through a chat feature and relay this data and analytics to the insurance company. Spixii then went on to win BNP Paribas’ International Hackathon earlier this year.

Last year’s winner Amyko has built a platform for collecting and sharing medical and health data from a wearable and sending it to an approved party, such as an insurer.

Finalists in this year’s contest will also receive marketing services worth €1,500 on the Medici platform and will be presented to C Entrepreneurs Fund, the venture capital fund of BNP Paribas Cardif.

Applications are open now and will close on October 23.