Japanese insurance giant Sompo has launched a new insurance product based on technology from Israeli company Parametrix to mitigate the risk of a cloud outage during virtual shareholders meetings. The new product has been launched in cooperation with the virtual shareholder meeting support service Sharely, provided by Coincheck Inc.
Traditionally, shareholder meetings were held at physical designated locations where directors and shareholders could gather. However, in response to the spread of Covid, virtual meetings were introduced to help prevent the spread of infection by enabling participation from remote locations. Another result of shifting to virtual meetings was a reduction in operating costs.
Many businesses worldwide experience technological glitches which disrupt routine operations, processes and services. Downtime can lead to lost opportunities and lost revenue. Cloud outages also tarnish brand reputation and result in customer churn.
The insurance provided covers costs incurred when a virtual shareholder meeting is forced to be canceled or modified if the cloud service used by Sharely is down. The insurance is only applicable for a hybrid attendance or virtual-only shareholder meetings.
Parametrix develops insurance policies that cover cloud-based crashes or downtime. The startup, which was founded three years ago and has more than 50 employees in offices in Israel, the US, the UK and Germany, has raised $17.5 million last year from FirstMark Capital, and F2 Ventures. The company offers their insurance products in Israel, the US, and Europe. Its partnership with Sompo is helping expand to the Japanese market as well.
Parametrix has developed innovative technology, which continuously monitors many third-party systems such as cloud computing, Internet service providers, customer relations management systems, e-commerce services, and digital payment means. This system provides precise alerts when downtime occurs, identifying impacted services. They provide the data and insights required to produce policies based on parametric models. Parametric insurance is insurance that allows rapid provision of insurance indemnity, without the need for a claim clearing process, and which is adapted to the needs of the customer, in terms of the level of the coverage.
The collaboration between Parametrix and Sompo has been led by Sompo's innovation center in Tel Aviv, which was founded in 2018 and leads investments and collaborations with Israeli companies, in the fields of transport, digital health services, cybersecurity and insurance services.
Sompo Digital Lab Israel & Europe head Yinnon Dolev said, "The world and our business culture changed in the past two years due to the global pandemic. Even though we are able today to meet face to face some of the times, everyone enjoyed the benefits and cost efficiency of working remotely. We are delighted our collaboration with Parametrix is progressing to the next level and allows us to adapt our raft of products to the changing digital world".
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 6, 2022.
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