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Seven companies pitch virtually to cap off GIA’s 2020 cohort

April 23, 2020

The culmination of the Global Insurance Accelerator and its 100 day program came Wednesday afternoon as the seven companies in the 2020 cohort presented to more than 350 people who attended the online event.

On March 16, day 63 of this year’s cohort, the GIA converted its 2020 cohort to a fully remote program. 

“We have many great mentors who give their time remotely so we were not new to Zoom when it became out core communication tool when the program went remote six weeks ago,” said Nicole Gunderson, Managing Director of GIA.

Here are the seven companies that pitched at last nights event:

DenScore

DenScore is a software solution that leverages dental claims data and patient feedback to measure dentists’ clinical performance. Dental insurers use DenScore to help enrollees make better decisions, to build a stronger provider network and to offer new insight for actuaries and data analysts. DenScore reduces dental insurers’ claims spending and increases their revenue while providing added value to their customers.

Care Given

Caregiven provides a platform that gives caregivers the guidance they need to manage the final years of a loved-one’s life through an on-demand, private, and judgment-free mobile resource. As a digital engagement and support tool offered by life and health insurance companies and employee benefits providers, Caregiven ensures aging or ailing loved-ones benefit from a higher quality of life, reduced costs, and peace of mind navigating the last stages of their end-of-life journey.

Kiwi

Kiwi empowers people to live fulfilling lives by leveraging social media analytics to provide lifestyle-centric insurance. Based in New York, Kiwi is an insurtech startup that offers risk scoring and product distribution of episodic on demand insurance with an initial use case that covers out-of pocket medical expenses.

Summary Medical

Summary Medical, enables insurance companies to automatically review medical records with software that uses optical character recognition, natural language processing, and strong security and privacy controls. For life underwriters, this means faster and better decisions about applicants and policyholders with additional use cases in claims processing and insurance product development.

Insurvite

InsureVite helps insurers revolutionize their customer experience and engagement through messaging. InsureVite’s cloudbased Virtual Bot Assistant and Process Automation hybrid solution enables time-starved millennial customers to buy, claim and check their insurance coverage instantly any time, anywhere, via any messaging apps they prefer.

UDoTest

UDoTest is a B2B, HIPAA secure, cloudbased software system providing home laboratory testing with physician oversight. The system provides a member portal, customized “Health Box” for specimen collection, secure video for identification purposes with a backend portal for the insurance company’s data/video retrieval and physician oversight. The system shortens the underwriting process, improves health and life member engagement while at the same time reducing costs and risks through disease state detection.

Gerald Technologies

Gerald provides a life events engagement and cross-sell platform to insurance providers. Gerald’s platform enables insurance providers to retain and cross-sell to their existing policyholders by automating engagement, with the right product, and at the right time – when a life event occurs. Gerald alerts insurance companies on events such as marriage, birth, death, mortgage, auto loans, home listing/sale etc.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

Meet the Global Insurance Accelerator’s 2020 cohort -Jan. 8, 2020

Global Insurance Accelerator nearly doubles funding for insurtech startups -Oct. 14, 2019

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Seven companies pitch virtually to cap off GIA's 2020 cohort | Clay & Milk
A central Iowa ag-tech accelerator has secured more backers and finally has a name. The Greater Des Moines Partnership first announced the accelerator last year, naming four initial investors. On Monday, the Partnership said the program will be called the "Iowa AgriTech Accelerator" and named three new investors. The new investors include Grinnell Mutual, Kent Corp. and Sukup Manufacturing, all Iowa companies. They join investors Deere & Co., Peoples Co., Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. and DuPont Pioneer. Each investor has agreed to put up $100,000 for the first year of the accelerator. Startups entering the program will receive $40,000 in seed funding in exchange for 6 percent equity. Tej Dhawan, an angel investor and local startup mentor, is serving as interim director until the AgriTech Accelerator names a permanent leader. Dhawan held a similar role with the GIA before Brian Hemesath was named as managing director. As interim director, Dhawan said his main job includes hiring the accelerator's executive director, establishing a business structure and initial recruiting for the first cohort. The accelerator will place few filters, such as location and product, on the applicant pool, Dhawan said. "When you’re seeking innovation, innovation can come from every corner of the world so why restrict ourselves," he said. One area the the AgriTech Accelerator won't recruit from is biotech. For its first cohort, the AgriTech Accelerator will work out of the GIA's space in Des Moines' East Village, Dhawan said. A future, permanent home is still to be decided. The accelerator's program will host startups from mid-July through mid-October, ending with an event connected to the annual World Food Prize. The GIA, which the AgriTech Accelerator is based on, also ends with presentations at an industry event. The accelerator has also started lining up a mentor pool. The Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association and the Iowa Pork Producers Association have agreed to provide mentors, as has Iowa State University. While the AgriTech Accelerator is loosely based off of the GIA, it will differ in its business structure, Dhawan said. The GIA runs through a for-profit model for both operations and its investment fund. The AgriTech Accelerator will have a nonprofit model for its operations and a for-profit setup for its fund. Dhawan said the nonprofit model is being used so the accelerator can better work with other nonprofit partners, such as trade associations. "These are all organizations that are nonprofits and can be amazing stakeholders without ever having to be investors in the accelerator," he said. "It becomes easier to work with trade associations in their nonprofit role when we are also a nonprofit." When it's up and running, the AgriTech Accelerator would be one of a handful of ag-focused startup development programs in Iowa. Others include the Ag Startup Engine out of Iowa State University and the Rural Ventures Alliance from Iowa MicroLoan. Matthew Patane is the managing editor and co-founder of Clay & Milk. Send him an email at mpatane@clayandmilk.com.
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