The international congress fair insureNXT Digital by InsurLab Germany and Koelnmesse took place at the end of April. insureNXT was the impetus for various networking opportunities between traditional insurers, startups, and cross-industry partners, who were given the chance to develop new solutions and create new ecosystems and business models. The agenda of the ordinary general meeting of InsurLab Germany e.V., held within this framework, included board elections. In addition to the appointment of Rainer Brune, Chairman of the Board of ROLAND Rechtsschutz-Versicherung-AG, to the extended board and the re-election of Torsten Oletzky, Professor at TH Köln, Nect Co-Founder and CSO Carlo Ulbrich was also elected to the extended board of InsurLab Germany. This marked the first time the initiative welcomed a startup member to the
board.
Sebastian Pitzler, Managing Director of InsurLab Germany e.V., explains the decision as follows: “We are proud to expand our InsurLab Germany Board with Carlo Ulbrich, Co-Founder and CSO of Nect. Our industry initiative thrives on the exchange between established insurers and startups. Therefore, it is important to us to facilitate this exchange within our board and to further strengthen the interests of our startup members through Carlo Ulbrich. I look forward to working with Carlo Ulbrich and our entire board, as well as the operational team, to further advance digitalization in the insurance industry –
#InnovateInsurance.”
Carlo Ulbrich sees a real opportunity in his new additional role: “I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute my expertise from five years of startup and digitalization work to the insurance industry as a board member of InsurLab Germany. Through close exchange with the other board members and my background as co-founder of Nect, we can jointly promote and shape collaborations and opportunities between established insurance companies and startups.”
As a representative of Nect GmbH, Carlo Ulbrich can now provide valuable input to InsurLab Germany and its members on networking the insurance industry and the startup landscape, thus contributing to the digital development of an entire industry.
Nect has been a member of InsurLab Germany since 2017, successfully completed Accelerator Batch#19, and in 2020, at the Accelerator Demo Day, provided insights into its success story in a presentation. For the latter, InsurLab Germany even used a Nect solution for the first time: with Ticket-Ident, participants of the Accelerator Demo Day were identified in advance and received their ticket to the online event via the Nect App. Furthermore, through InsurLab Germany’s activities, Nect gained its first and very important reference customer, R+V Versicherungen – the beginning of a true startup success story “made in Germany.”
The industry initiative InsurLab Germany was founded in 2017 by the City of Cologne, Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry, University of Cologne, TH Köln, established insurance companies, and startups. The goal of InsurLab Germany is to promote innovation and digitalization in the insurance industry, actively shaping the future of the sector with new impulses and working methods. As part of the Digital Hub Initiative established by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, InsurLab Germany forms the InsurTech competence center in Cologne. Its membership includes many renowned insurers, universities, leading service providers, and startups.
