The UK Insurtech Board has unveiled a toolkit of legal documents designed to make it easier for ambitious insurance technology startups to forge commercial relationships with corporate partners.
UK insurtech is booming, attracting $1.7 billion in investment in 2018. However, one area where startups struggle, says the Insurtech Board, is a lack of legal support or consistent requirements when entering discussions with potential corporate partners.
The remedy is a suite of startup-friendly legal documents which can be downloaded at no cost from the website of Tech Nation, which is behind the Insurtech Board.
Produced in partnership with leading law firms, Dentons and Simmons & Simmons, the documents aim to remove some of the legal and compliance-related obstacles that often hinder the ability of startups to do business with large, well established insurance companies.
Tech Nation chair Eileen Burbidge says: “We've been encouraged by ever-growing willingness and interest from insurance companies to work with innovative startups as a means of driving innovation, but it's clear that standard legal issues can stand in the way of collaboration.
"The insurance sector has its own contractual norms and practices and without legal support, early stage businesses are disadvantaged in drawing up and negotiating documents that meet the expectations of potential partners.
"This new toolkit addresses that problem. Conforming to industry standards, they can be downloaded free of charge and used as a legal underpinning to negotiations.”