Five startups have been accepted into the third cohort of AXA Mansard’s Accelerate program, termed the Innovation Exchange program.
The startup firms are Drug Store, a pharmacy technology innovation; Legacy, an insuretech company; Xchange Box, a fintech company; Bunce, a consumer engagement and management platform; and Debbo Africa, a health tech company.
AXA created the 15-week Innovation Exchange program to support tech entrepreneurs seeking to address issues in the insurance industry.
The program offers a range of masterclasses, office hours, and co-creation events that give these entrepreneurs access to mentors, industry experts, and experience-based learning. AXA may also be one of the program’s successful startups’ initial paying clients.
Speaking about the development to BrandSpur national news story desk, Ngozi Ola-Israel, Chief Financial Officer of AXA Mansard Insurance Plc, said that more than 50 entries from various inventors were received during the application process, which opened in July 2024.
According to her: “These entries were exposed to different levels of rigorous reviews from experts across our company before we arrived at the final five.”
Continuing, Ola-Israel stated: “As a leader in unlocking technology to accelerate the growth of insurance in Nigeria, the interests and entries in this programme are further conviction that our industry is advancing in the right direction. The sheer number of innovations that we have seen convinces us of the possibilities and opportunities that the insurance industry can bring to our national development.
“What this tells us is that there are innovators who have seen the challenges that we face as an industry, and they are creating different types and levels of opportunities by solving the problems. So in the end, the innovators win, the customers win, the industry wins and ultimately our economy wins from being able to fully harness the benefits of insurance,” Ola-Israel added.
Adding, she had this to say: “So, we congratulate the newly admitted cohort members selected from all those who applied. Our aim is to be able to expand the programme as we go and get more innovators on board to help them accelerate.”
The members of this cohort were chosen based on their capacity to offer value-added services, such as gamification techniques to improve digital client interactions, retention, and emergency assistance services, and to showcase solutions for New Insurance Models & Products.
However, since its inception in 2022, the innovation exchange program has helped ten firms gain momentum. Curacel, GeroCare, Clafiya, Chekker, LegitCar, MyItura, and Inocul8 are a few of them.
