In a recent panel at ITC London, venture capitalist leaders shared insights into how startups and incumbents are building high-impact partnerships that extend well beyond an initial pilot.
Moderator Silvia Signoretti, President of Swiss InsurTech Hub was joined by Ant Barker (Director, Aviva Ventures), Matt Jones (Head of Ventures, MS Transverse) and Hélène Falchier (General Partner, Portage).
Making a Partnership Work
Matt Jones highlighted that many partnership issues stem from a lack of basic communication. He argued that dialogue, particularly face-to-face interaction, is often underestimated. Taking the time to pick up the phone or meet in-person gives an opportunity for people to communicate their motivations and ensures internal teams and their external partners are on the same page.
Ant Barker emphasised the need for a clear partnership playbook that enables organisations to move fast. He indicated that people must have agreed metrics and an awareness of the key sponsors who are in it for the long-term.
Hélène Falchier reinforced the importance of planning for what comes after the Proof of Concepts (POCs) and how the shift can be made from experimentation to reality. Jones echoed this, warning insurtechs against trying to leap straight from POC to full production. He likened it to skipping from dating straight to marriage and emphasised the importance of that “bit in between” (which, of course looks different depending on the people involved!).
The panelists acknowledged that speed means different things to different partners. Barker stressed that insurtechs need to understand they are operating in a regulatory environment, which makes things slower, and because of this they must deploy limited resources smartly.
Trust also emerged as a critical enabler. Jones returned to the value of in-person engagement, and, as Barker noted, it’s all about building relationships and knowing your key stakeholders on both sides.
The Role of Investors
The panel also examined how investors influence the insurtech–incumbent relationships. Barker noted that insurers want to partner with companies capable of scaling, which often means working with (and balancing) multiple commercial partners alongside strong investor relationships.
Falchier took a pragmatic view, arguing that investors should help founders stay true to strategy. If a project doesn’t fit, it may be better to walk away early. In this context, investors can play the “bad cop” role, asking difficult questions to test whether a partnership or decision really makes sense.
Jones offered a cautionary perspective, noting that some investors take overly extreme positions, pushing founders to put all their eggs in one basket or telling them to focus on something else. This approach can be value-destructive, particularly when investors lack a nuanced understanding of the insurance industry.
Real-World Examples
When asked for a partnership case study, Barker shared Aviva’s journey with Tembo Money, a UK mortgage and savings platform introduced to them through Founders Factory. Aviva appointed a senior leader to Tembo’s board and invested heavily in face-to-face engagement. The result is that Tembo is now fully embedded within Aviva’s workplace pension business to provide mortgage advice.
He also talked about their relationship with Indico Data. This company specialises in data ingestion and cleansing, enabling agentic AI-driven workflow automation. Aviva’s innovation team worked closely with Indico to identify the most relevant business units its solution could be deployed to.
Key Takeaways
The panel closed with practical advice for the audience:
For more insights from ITC London, check out our other event posts – ‘Embedding Innovation from Within – ITC London‘ or ‘Insurtech Journeys: From Product to Profit – ITC London‘.
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