Today iXledger, the p2p insurance marketplace, announced a partnership to develop a solution with the unisonSteadfast broker network. The solution will use iXledger’s blockchain platform.
unisonSteadfast is the third largest commercial insurance network in the world with 590 brokers in 130 countries. Brokers in the German-headquartered network write more than $20 billion in gross premiums per year. The end clients are mainly medium-sized businesses.
The first phase of the partnership will focus on management of the broker network, and communication and knowledge sharing. The ultimate aim is to create a marketplace and client management platform.
Wolfgang Mercier, President and CEO of unisonSteadfast said: “Partnering with iXledger will enable us to utilize the capabilities of blockchain technologies to streamline processes in an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, especially when dealing with cross-border communications and compliance.”
Ingemar Svensson, Founder and CEO of iXledger commented: “We are confident that our partnership will result in greater control and visibility across complex workflows across the member network, achieving greater efficiencies.”
Another London-based startup in this space is ChainThat which provides blockchain solutions, mainly for brokers.
About iXledger
The primary aim is to create a marketplace. They’re working on both a p2p insurance marketplace and a business one. At a recent conference, Svensson mentioned they’re planning to release an insurance product that targets ICOs as customers.
Svensson highlighted three areas of focus. Firstly automating the insurance lifecycle, which includes processing premiums, claims, and endorsements. A substantial piece of work. They’re also working on consumer applications. Both the p2p one above and some which they’re developing for clients.
An example of a client app is one for the marine industry. Staff that works on vessels pass through high-risk areas. They switch on the insurance smart contract when they board a vessel, and their phone feeds the GPS to the smart contract. The premium is re-calculated based on their location. This is an entirely decentralized policy.
iXledger’s third focus area is tokenizing insurance risks. However, Svensson acknowledged they hadn’t done any code for this yet. He sees the timeframe for token adoption in insurance as two to five years.
The startup uses Ethereum.
The blockchain company did an ICO last July raising $7m. The current market capitalization is $27m.
