Old Mutual expands investments in innovation

Old Mutual Limited has announced that it is expanding its investments in innovation through a new collaboration with venture capital firm Anthemis Group. Anthemis will deploy capital on behalf of Old Mutual through its Anthemis Insurance Venture Growth Fund (AIVGF), focused on series B and C companies in InsurTech.

Old Mutual aims to transform its customer experience by sourcing and deploying innovative solutions across its value chain. This is in line with the Group’s refreshed Truly Mutual Strategy to champion mutually positive futures for customers through the breadth of solutions that the Group offers. The collaboration will see Old Mutual act as the exclusive strategic investor for Africa in the AIVGF.

To support this goal, Anthemis and Old Mutual have committed to scout for and/or invest in innovative companies both on the African continent and across the globe that are advancing the digital transformation and disruption of the financial services sector.

Old Mutual CEO, Iain Williamson, commented: “While we have a number of investments in innovation, technology and digitalization, we are excited at the scouting capability Anthemis brings to the Group. We are confident that this collaboration will serve to significantly enhance every aspect of our business, from product solutions to technology, customer experience and servicing, so that we truly become our customers’ first choice.”

The Group has made good progress in building a compelling customer experience enabled by purpose-led technology over the last year, with some key milestones being achieved. These include:

• 98% of funeral claims processed in four hours or less
• 25% of all life claims submitted are on digital platforms, with this number is growing
• 1 in 10 customers are engaging digitally
• 175 robots across 50 processes executing 44,000 transactions a week
• The digitalisation of customer and advisor experiences across the Group are projected to help realise a savings of R750-million by 2022.

“This collaboration with Anthemis will help us to build on this progress and strengthen the core fundamentals that have helped to anchor our brand in the hearts and minds of customers for 176 years and hopefully well beyond,” concludes Iain.

The Old Mutual and Anthemis partnership is already live, with the teams working to scope relevant opportunities driving significant impact within the insurance industry.