This just in from one of the newswires, which offers a useful snapshot of how busy Cyberport in Hong Kong is right now.
As a key promoter of Hong Kong’s digital technologydevelopments, Hong Kong Cyberport spares no efforts in injecting new momentum into the economy. Cyberport has the largest FinTech community in Hong Kong, boosting close to400 FinTech companies.
Currently, there are more than 30 InsurTech companies in the Cyberport Community. Theyprovide diversified insurance technology solutions that run through the insurance sector’s industry chain, propelling the industry’s digital transformation.
Eric Chan, Chief Public Mission Officer of Cyberport said, “As an international financial centre, Hong Kong is developing its financial technology industry at full force. With its abundance of finance talents and strong backing from both the government and Cyberport,Hong Kong’s FinTech start-ups have sprung up.”
InsurTech basecamp
From 2018 until now, four companies have been granted virtual insurance licenses in Hong Kong. All of them are members of the Cyberport community, including Bowtie, Avo Insurance, OneDegree and ZA Insure. They bring innovative and affordable insurance products to the market, such as voluntary health insurance policies with competitive prices, eWallet insurance packages for the modern-day consumer, pet insurance policies that have yet to become common in Hong Kong and health insurance plans targeting specific illnesses.
Besides newly established virtual insurance companies, there have been collaborations between Cyberport’s InsurTech start-ups and conventional insurance companies.
They have worked together on different steps along the insurance process from product design, distribution to compensation, facilitating the digital transformation. General banks or insurance companies often take between six and nine months to create a system for new insurance products. For Cyberport community member CoverGo, it makes good use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to drastically cut the time it takes on insurance product design.
Insurance firms that choose to use CoverGo’s technical platform service can complete a product design in a matter of days whilst balancing risks in claims assessments.
On selling insurance policies, Cyberport incubatee HEYCOINS recently teamed up with Zurich Insurance (Hong Kong) to provide sports protection microinsurances. Through HEYCOINS’ mobile application, the policyholder can buy a microsinsurance product that takes effect the same day the purchase is made, to cover medical expenses that may incur from sports injuries.
At the claims and assessment stage, Cyberport incubatee MediConCen uses blockchain technology to support insurance companies in their medical claims process. Blockchain technology does not allow changes to previous records. This vastly increases the confidence level patients, medical groups and insurance firms have on available data. The claims process is made even quicker with the use of a simple interface. This makes assessments more efficient and cost-effective.
As Eric Chan noted, “Cyberport’s assistance for start-ups is not limited to local entrepreneurs. We encourage driven and creative entrepreneurs from the mainland and overseas, to run their business in Hong Kong and inject new momentum into Hong Kong’s digital economy.
Some insurance demand could not be satisfied by the market in the past due to cost or operational restrictions. With InsurTech, conventional insurance companies and virtual insurers are able to launch more innovative products easily. Both the industry and consumers will seek to benefit from cheaper premiums and accessible policies.”
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