SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MetLife Korea today announced seven finalists for its open innovation program, collab 5.0. The program invites insurtech companies globally to scale their business with MetLife while solving some of the insurer’s biggest innovation challenges across its Korean business.
Developed by LumenLab, MetLife’s Asia innovation center, collab invites insurtech companies to compete for a USD 100,000 contract to create and pilot solutions with MetLife Korea in areas such as customer engagement, sales, and operations.
Since launching in January, collab 5.0 has attracted over 180 applications from startups based in more than 30 countries around the world. The seven finalists are:
- Atidot (Israel) enables life insurers to identify opportunities within their existing book of business by using big data and predictive analytics to identify underinsured customers.
- Eda Communications (South Korea) enhances customer experience by helping customers find the right agent based on their characteristics and demographics.
- Endor (Israel) allows business users to answer predictive business questions in the same day without a need of data science expertise.
- Fount (South Korea) is a robo advisor which helps users allocate their assets and weigh their portfolios.
- Gnowbe (Singapore) provides a mobile-first microlearning solution focused on employee onboarding, training, and engagement.
- Helixco (South Korea) is a saliva-based molecular diagnostic company which analyses people’s oral microbiome for potential associations with illnesses linked with the brain, the heart, diabetes, arthritis and more.
- MindsLab (South Korea) enables an omnichannel AI contact center through its natural language processing, speech recognition, and voice generation engines.
With the help of employee champions from MetLife Korea, the finalists will develop their ideas over the next two months before attending the collab Summit in Seoul on June 12 and 13 where the winner will be announced.
“These seven startups offer tremendous potential to deliver value-creating solutions for MetLife Korea and its customers. We’re excited our employees will get to work with them directly to develop these solutions and further embed a culture of innovation at MetLife,” said Young Rok Song, Senior Vice President and General Manager, MetLife Korea.
“We’re delighted to see record-breaking interest in collab and the calibre of applicants continue to grow in its fifth iteration. We were thrilled to see 51 applicants from South Korea alone,” said Zia Zaman, LumenLab’s chief executive officer and chief innovation officer, MetLife Asia.
Collab 5.0 follows four successful collab programs, including two in Japan in 2017 and 2018, one MetLife’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region in 2018, and one in Singapore in 2016.
Since its inception in 2016, collab has attracted 718 applications from more than 60 countries and MetLife has awarded around USD 900,000 worth of contracts to develop value-generating solutions for MetLife’s business and customers.
For more information on collab 5.0 and the seven finalists, visit: http://collab.lumenlab.sg/
About MetLife
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates (“MetLife”), is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.
About LumenLab
As MetLife’s pioneers for disruptive innovation, LumenLab is charging ahead to create new businesses in health, wealth and retirement. Lumen, a measure of light, symbolizes our commitment to illuminating a new path for solving the problems that the people of Asia face today. Through our focus on building new products and services grounded in technology and data, we aim to help people achieve richer and more fulfilling lives. For more information, visit http://www.lumenlab.sg
