As a Collab winner, Montoux is ‘building a long-term relationship’ with MetLife
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND (April 18, 2018) - Montoux was thrilled to be selected as one of three winners announced at Demo Day for MetLife Japan’s Collab 2.0 on December 8 2017. We received a JPY 10 million contract with MetLife Japan, which has given us an invaluable entry into the second largest life insurance market in the world.
Applications are still open for Collab 3.0 until the end of this week, and Montoux CEO Klaas Stijnen would encourage any company which thinks it could be a good fit for the program to apply, saying Montoux has experienced only great advantages from the relationship so far.
For Collab 3.0 hopefuls, Stijnen advises they be very clear on what the company and product or service is, and is not - and what they need in order to figure out the best approach. "That enables champions to find the right place and people for you. Also be transparent about the advantages and disadvantages of the solution, and understand you are building a long term relationship."
A large number of insurtechs and entrepreneurs have already applied for “Collab 3.0 EMEA”, a global open innovation platform inviting participants to scale their business with MetLife while solving some of the insurer’s biggest challenges across its business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Startups can still apply up until close on 20 April, 2018 at the collab websitefor the opportunity to develop solutions in areas such as customer engagement, sales, and operations, and to pilot these solutions with MetLife EMEA.
Created by LumenLab, MetLife Asia’s innovation center, collab 3.0 EMEA builds on the success of two previous collab programmes for MetLife Asia (collab 1.0) and MetLife Japan (collab 2.0), which have awarded US$600,000 in equity-free contracts to startup finalists.
Previous collab winners have focused on areas including operations optimisation, product pricing, customer engagement, digital distribution, and claims analysis.
Klaas Stijnen, CEO of Montoux, one of the collab 2.0’s winners, which has already started to pilot its solutions in product pricing optimisation with MetLife Japan, advises entrants to be transparent about the advantages and disadvantages of their solution when applying and to be prepared for high calibre engagement if they are selected for the programme.
Following a rigorous selection process, MetLife will determine eight finalists and pair them with MetLife EMEA employee champions to help finalists hone their pitch and improve problem-solution fit.
“You are building a long-term relationship, so take your time to explain and ask questions and ensure communication is clear. Have patience and ask for advice from MetLife’s employee champions and LumenLab’s collab team on your pitch. That process is a great help to get your value proposition right.”
“Winning collab was a far easier way of entering a new market than the traditional route and a key advantage was the level of support from different layers and geographies within MetLife to make innovation succeed,” Klaas Stijnen, CEO of Montoux.
The eight finalists will be invited to attend the collab Summit EMEA and Demo Day in London on 11-12 July, 2018 to present their solutions where the ultimate winner will be announced.
To learn more and apply for collab 3.0 EMEA, please visit: collab.lumenlab.sg.
