Lloyd’s Lab affirms Loadsure’s bright future

Lloyd’s of London is the world’s largest insurance market. And, while many industries have already undergone a tech transformation, the insurance industry is lagging. In response to this, Lloyd’s of London—the world’s largest insurance market and home to 300 years of history—launched its innovation accelerator, Lloyd’s Lab, in 2018.

Yesterday, Lloyd’s Lab closed the chapter on its fourth cohort. Of the 190 applications it received from around the world, only 12 were accepted—and we’re very proud to be among them.

It has been an extraordinary journey.

Timing our Lloyd’s Lab experience for maximum value

Lloyd’s of London launched its innovation lab just as I was getting Loadsure off-the-ground.

While the value of entering Lloyd’s Lab was crystal clear, I knew it wasn’t right for Loadsure yet. I wanted the freedom to build-up Loadsure outside the public domain—I needed time and space to understand what this business was going to be before landing on the industry’s radar.

As 2019 drew to a close, my COO, Jim Heide, and I had a structure in place, a minimal viable product to offer, and we’d just received Lloyd’s coverholder status. I was proud of what our business had achieved and, in 2020, it was the time to come out of stealth mode.

Our Loadsure chairman, Rupert Atkin, was once a Lloyd’s deputy chairman and he felt it was time to share our model with Lloyd’s—to communicate what we were trying to achieve.

What were we trying to achieve?

In short: We intended to digitalize transactional business, reduce costs in the market, deliver policies direct to the customer, and deliver Lloyd’s access to a new, volume business.

As long-tail liability business was still negatively impacting Lloyd’s results, we knew our focus on low complexity risk and short-tail business was just what they were looking for.

Lloyd’s of London sees Loadsure as an exceptional fit

Through Rupert, I was introduced to Lloyd’s Director of Performance, Jon Hancock. Let me tell you, it’s not often that you get to meet with senior-level Lloyd’s leadership. Jon was among the gods on Lloyd’s of London’s 11th floor—and it was Jon who recommended that we speak with their innovation lab.

And, so, we met with Trevor Maynard, head of innovation at Lloyd’s. At the time, we wondered if we were, perhaps, too far down the line to enter the lab. He encouraged us to enter. As it turned out, Lloyd’s Labs’ fourth cohort would address the advancement of transportation insurance—ideal for us—and it would give us access to Lloyd’s data and Lloyd’s mentors with vast experience.

Loadsure selected from a large pool of international applicants

On Trevor’s recommendation, we submitted an application for Lloyd’s Lab’s fourth cohort. Invited to pitch day, we shared our vision for a fully-digitized model for high volume, transactional business to a large London market panel.

Our pitch was very well received, and we were selected as one of just a dozen to enter the lab. It was a tremendous honor to be included—and the value we’ve realized from our participation has given us tremendous confidence in Loadsure’s future.

The unquestioned value of our Lloyd’s Lab experience

We believed we had something really special in Loadsure but the truth is, you just really never know. Entering an experience like Lloyd’s Lab, we could discover that our vision had merit—or we could watch as what we believed was an exciting growth opportunity disintegrated in front of our eyes.

As it turned out, though, we discovered we were even more relevant than we thought. Over and over, it became clear that this was the perfect time for a solution like Loadsure. Lloyd’s Lab affirmed that we were on the right path.

Throughout, we’ve had support for the way we believe insurance should be underwritten today. Powered by AI and predictive analytics. Automated. Direct-to-customer. And, with shipment-level granularity.

We see clear value in pay-as-you-go insurance—and Lloyd’s sees that value, too.

Now, with our Lloyd’s Lab experience coming to a close in just a few weeks, it’s clear how valuable our participation has been to Loadsure. Not only has our access to in-depth insurance knowledge been incredibly useful, but we’ve also developed strong, strategic relationships that will contribute to our future growth. Our Lloyd’s mentors are getting to know us. They’re excited about what we’ re doing, and they want to invest their time with us. What’s more, they recognize the depth of knowledge we’re bringing to the table across transportation, tech, and insurance.

At the same time, we see that Lloyd’s has a very bright future ahead. The insurance market is embracing the digital era and learning how it can both expedite services and digitize the flow of premiums and claims.

The visibility Loadsure has realized from this Lloyd’s Lab experience has also been invaluable. Investors close to Lloyd’s are taking special note and the insurance market is engaging in what we’re doing. They recognize that we’re not just making noise, but that we’re delivering something of value—to the transportation industry, and beyond.

Lloyd’s Lab has proved to be a very constructive process, and we’ll emerge with a nearly fully-formed international product that addresses pain points within the transportation industry—and a model that can be applied to other high-volume transactional business.

It’s been an honor to be part of Lloyd’s Lab fourth cohort and we’re excited by what our future holds.